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FAITH, HEALTH 
AND COMMON SENSE 


Edwin A. McAlpin 





DORAN’S MODERN READERS’ BOOKSHELF 
Edited by Sidney Dark and John Farrar 





FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 
Edwin A. McAlphin 

INTELLECTUAL VAGABONDAGE 
Floyd Dell 

HOW TO UNDERSTAND PHILOSOPHY 
A.E. Baker 

HOW TO ENJOY LIFE 
Sidney Dark 

HOW TO ENJOY THE BIBLE 
Anthony C. Deane, M.A. 

THE HERITAGE OF GREECE AND THE 

LEGACY OF ROME 

E. B. Osborn 


ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
Gilbert K. Chesterton 

THE STORY OF THE RENAISSANCE 
Sidney Dark 

HOW TO READ HISTORY 
W. Watkin Davies 

VICTORIAN POETRY 
John Drinkwater 

THE POETRY OF ARCHITECTURE 
Frank Rutter 


ATOMS AND ELECTRONS 
J.W.N. Sullivan 


EVERYDAY BIOLOGY 
J. Arthur Thomson 





Other Volumes in Preparation 


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FAITH, HEALTH sale 49 WS 


AND COMMON SENSE 








BY 


EDWIN A. McALPIN 
AUTHOR OF “ON TO CHRIST” 





COPYRIGHT, 1926, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


DD 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 
Bae 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


TO 


THE CONGREGATION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH OF MADISON, NEW JERSEY 


whose sympathy and loyalty never fal- 

tered while their Pastor felt his way 

through strange subjects to a deeper ap- 
preciation of the Gospel of Christ 





GENERAL INTRODUCTION 


Of all human ambitions an open 
mind eagerly expectant of new discov- 
eries and ready to remold convictions 
in the light of added knowledge and 
dispelled ignorances and misapprehen- 
sions, 1s the noblest, the rarest and the 
most dificult to achieve. 

James Harvey Rosinson, in 

“The Humanizing of Knowledge.” 

It is the purpose of Doran’s Mopern Reap- 
ERS’ BooksHeELr to bring together in brief, 
stimulating form a group of books that will be 
fresh appraisals of many things that interest 
modern men and women. Much of History, 
Literature, Biography and Science is of intense 
fascination for readers to-day and is lost to 
them by reason of being surrounded by a for- 
bidding and meticulous scholarship. 

These books are designed to be simple, short, 
authoritative, and such as would arouse the 
interest of intelligent readers. As nearly as pos- 
sible they will be intended, in Professor Robin- 


[ vii] 


GENERAL INTRODUCTION 


son’s words quoted above, “to remold convic- 
tions in the light of added knowledge.” 


This “adding of knowledge’ and a wide- 
spread eagerness for it are two of the chief 
characteristics of our time. Never before, 
probably, has there been so great a desire to 
know, or so many exciting discoveries of truth 
of one sort or another. Knowledge and the 
quest for it has now about it the glamour of an 
adventure. To the quickening of this spirit in 
our day Doran’s Mopern Reapers’ Boox- 
SHELF hopes to contribute. 

In addition to the volumes announced here 
others are in preparation for early publication. 
The Editors will welcome suggestions for the 
BooxsHELF and will be glad to consider any 
manuscripts suitable for inclusion. 


Tue Epirors. 


[ viii] 


INTRODUCTION 


This book is an effort to work out a practical 
method of applying faith to health. It is not 
a polemic treatise but a guide to the use of the 
best elements in the different methods of heal- 
ing, including scientific medicine, faith healing 
and mental science. In Book I, the relations 
of religion to health are dealt with and a pro- 
gram is suggested to indicate how religion may 
be used to improve health. In Book II, the 
only kind of religion which heals the body is 
defined and the discipline necessary for cul- 
tivating such religion is outlined. With this 
brief introduction the text should explain 
itself. 

The study of religion as applied to health 
and the collateral reading it required has de- 
veloped my faith in Christ as a Saviour and 
made the Gospel message of more compelling 
interest to me than any other work I have ever 
done. If religion is in truth an important heal- 


[ix] 


INTRODUCTION 


ing agency, its message has a practical value 
little understood and neglected to the Church’s 
serious loss. 

While I accept full responsibility for all the 
conclusions I reach, I must express my apprecia- 
tion to the many friends who have helped me 
gather the facts on which these conclusions are 
based. It is impossible to name all these friends, 
but some have done so much that their kindness 
must be recognized. Dr. John M. T. Finney 
of Baltimore and Dr. Richard C. Cabot of Bos- 
ton read and criticized the material on which 
Chapter I of Book I is based. This chapter 
contains the scientific foundation upon which 
the whole argument is built up. Dr. F. I. 
Krauss of Chatham, N. J., and Dr. Kenneth 
R. McAlpin of the Presbyterian Hospital, 
New York, have read the whole manuscript 
and pointed out passages where my limited 
knowledge of medicine had led me to make 
unwise statements. None of these men is re- 
sponsible for or necessarily agrees with all the 
deductions the author has drawn from the 
facts. 

Thanks must be given to the Editors of the 


[x] 


INTRODUCTION 


Continent, the Presbyterian Advance, and the 
Presbyterian Banner for permission to use 
material which has appeared in these maga- 
zines. 


Epwin A. McAtrin. 
Madison, N. J., 
February, 1920. 


[xi] 





CONTENTS 


Boox One: A STUDY OF HEALTH 
AND RELIGION 


CHAPTER PAGE 
I RELIGION AND HEALTH . : 17 
II SIN AND SICKNESS . : : ne 
III WHAT KIND OF ILLNESS CAN FAITH CURE! . 54 


Iv SINCE FAITH CAN HEAL, WHY DOES IT SOME- 
TIMES FAIL TO HEAL! , WP OMS 
V THE BLESSINGS AND PERILS OF FAITH HEALING 82 


VI A PRACTICAL WAY OF APPLYING RELIGION TO 


HEALTH. ; go 
VII SCRIPTURE LESSONS WHICH ASSIST IN HEALING 
ILLNESS Serhan UA AVes Roe hI LOSS 


Boox Two: THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 
AND HOW TO CULTIVATE IT 


I CHRISTIANITY AND LIFE Ns 
II THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH . ‘ f E23 
Ill BIBLE STUDY AND SPIRITUAL STRENGTH itso 
WVorePRAYER: : l AES 
V MEDITATION . Wiis OZ 
VI WORSHIP AND HEALTH . : A Vie Ry | 

VII CONCLUSIONS . : : ; { ” iatss 
SUPPLEMENT: THE MINISTER AND FAITH 

HEALING. : PRL SG 

BIBLIOGRAPHY ; i Wieder: 


INDEX. } Wir Zo7 





Book One: A STUDY OF HEALTH AND 
RELIGION 


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PAITH, HEALTH 
AND COMMON SENSE 


Chapter I 


Religion and Health 


ANY people have faith and every one 
desires health, but it seems hard to 
apply faith to health and retain common sense. 
Everyone has heard of sick people being treated 
by Christian Science, New Thought, Mr. Hick- 
son or some other society or individual that. 
claims to heal the body by spiritual means or 
-mental powers. These healing cults, which 
from the student’s point of view are all differ- 
ent manifestations of the same fundamental 
principle, have been laughed at by some people, 
greeted with enthusiasm by others and treated — 
with indifference by the great majority. 
There has been enough of ridicule and prop- 
aganda, and what we need now is an intelli- 
gent comprehension of the facts and fallacies, 


[17] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


problems and fantasies, which have led thou- 
sands of people to believe that religion can be 
used to heal disease. The solution of this prob- 
lem lies in discovering some way of applying 
religious faith so as to satisfy not only man’s 
ethical needs and spiritual aspirations but also 
his desire for physical health, without outraging 
the intelligence which is and ever has been 
humanity’s best friend. 

Belief in the ability of religion to heal the 
body did not originate with Mrs. Eddy or Dr. 
Quimby, but is found in the very dawn of his- 
tory. It was the first therapeutic agent used 
to alleviate suffering. Primitive people in all 
parts of the world believed that sickness was 
caused by evil spirits who had taken possession 
of the sufferer’s body. This theory of sick- 
ness has been disproved, but medicine men and 
priests did work cures. The testimony of dis- 
interested observers, such as missionaries of a 
new faith and travelers from an alien people, 
prove this fact. How could medicine men 
heal the sick when their idea of medicine was 
based on an erroneous theory of what sickness 
was? ‘The incantations and fetishes they used 


[18] 


RELIGION AND HEALTH 


must have stimulated the patient’s faith and 
brought into action a mental power that was 
dormant in human nature, just as the old fam- 
ily physician cured some ills with bread pills; 
in both cases the physical benefit derived was 
due to psychological forces rather than to the 
agents used. While we admit this element of 
value in the practice of medicine men and 
priests, we have to recognize another truth that: 
supplements it. They failed to understand 
diseases and could not stop a plague or control 
an epidemic and these failures inspired the 
scientific study of medicine. 

Materia medica and the modern pharma- 
copeeia did not come into being full grown. 
When men of analytical minds lost faith in the 
priest as a physician and gave up the idea that 
all illness was due to the presence of an evil 
spirit they started to experiment with the hu- 
man body to see what results could be at- 
tained by the administrations of drugs and 
herbs, either locally or internally; they tried the 
effects of hot and cold applications; they made 
ointments out of all sorts of ingredients. Our 
modern pharmacopeeia is the result of past 


[19] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


experiments and an occasional fortunate ac- 
cident, and is always being enlarged, modi- 
fied and corrected as the scientists improve 
their methods of observation and the instru- 
ments in their laboratories. The criticism so 
frequently voiced by advocates of faith healing 
that medicine fails to cure disease is most mis- 
leading, as doctors only claim to assist the pa- 
tients as much as they can with the knowledge 
they have acquired by experience. 

While the laity have an exalted idea of med- 
icine, outstanding physicians are the most 
humble minded of men. Dr. Joseph D. Bry- 
ant, who enjoyed an enviable reputation as a 
surgeon some twenty-five years ago, once said, 
“We are like children groping our way in the 
dark. We make some progress and then we are 
called away and another takes up our work. 
He cannot begin where we left off but of ne- 
cessity must make his start somewhere along 
the path we traveled. It is slow work but we 
are making progress.” A realization of the 
limitations of medicine comes as a shock to the 
lay mind. It weakens a man’s faith to know 
that while medicine has been able to overcome 


[20] 


RELIGION AND HEALTH 


some of the most fearful scourges that have 
ever swept the earth, there are still diseases and 
whole classes of disease that it does not under- 
stand and cannot cure. 

The shock that follows is apt to destroy all 
faith in medicine, and in the hopelessness of a 
lost faith an atavistic trait of the human mind 
asserts itself and turns many people back to 
the ideas of primitive men. They yearn for a 
panacea that will cure every human ill without 
apology and without fail. The spirit of dis- 
couragement leads many people to accept some 
form of mental healing or faith cure. They 
have lost confidence in medicine and found a 
new faith in religion. 

There is another trait of the human mind 
_ which makes people of high ideals susceptible 
to this belief. When the body is physically 
well and functioning properly men forget they 
have a body, but when the body is racked by 
pain, it is only the strong character that is able 
to think of anything else. 

The idea that the mind can be used to heal 
the body fascinates these sufferers. The finest 
characters are most susceptible to this belief, 


[21] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


as the spiritual side of man’s nature rebels at 
being made the scapegoat of his bodily weak- 
ness. This is the reason why so many high- 
minded individuals are accepting some form of 
faith cure. Their bodies, because of the pain 
that racks them, fill far too much of their life, 
and they are striving to use their minds to bring 
their bodies into the place where they will be 
instruments of the soul’s activity, rather than 
the masters of their destiny. | 
This belief that religion and health are vi- 
tally connected is not an idle assumption but is 
based on undeniable facts. A large percent- 
age of all physical suffering is the result of per- 
sonal indulgence which Christianity has stigma- 
tized as sin, for viciousness and self-indul- 
gence have created all the venereal diseases 
which cause directly or indirectly as much suf- 
fering as any other class of disease known. 
Many centuries ago a man who was either in- 
spired of God or else a keen observer of human 
affairs stated that “God is a jealous God, visit- 
ing the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil- 
dren.” Critics of religion have found much 
fault with the character of God thus defined, 


[22] 


RELIGION AND HEALTH 


but we are discussing health rather than theo- 
logy. The fact remains that this old observer 
spoke the truth. Self-indulgence causes inno- 
cent children to become infected with syphilis 
while still in the uterus, and other diseases are 
contracted immediately after or at birth. The 
blindness of gonorrhea is a good illustration of 
this kind of suffering, as it blights a child’s life 
before the child has had a chance to live. These 
children are innocent but they have to suffer for 
their parents’ sin. 

Alcohol has a bad effect on physical health. 
Dr. Oscar H. Rogers, chief medical director of 
the New York Life Insurance Company, claims 
that there is no boundary within which the use 
of alcohol is entirely harmless; the damage 
done persists a long time after its use has been 
discontinued; and any one who uses it or has 
used it in the past, all other things being equal, 
is a less desirable risk than a total abstainer. 
Overeating and indulgence in rich foods, in 
plainer speech gluttony, are recognized as caus- 
ing many physical ills. 

In other words, if a man follows the law of 
self-control, or what religion calls the law of 


[23] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


God, he, his wife and his children have a better 
chance of enjoying physical health than if he 
disregards them. ‘The God that the old ob- 
server said visited the sins of the fathers on their 
children also said, “I will show loving-kindness 
unto thousands of them that love me and keep 
my commandments.” God is here pictured as 
exhorting men to follow the moral law for their 
own good and the good of their loved ones. 
Religion is something more than personal 
morality and to win the allegiance of men it 
has to show an interest in the common good. 
When men, women and children live or work 
in unsanitary and badly ventilated shops, fac- 
tories or homes, they are afflicted with sickness. 
Ignorance, filth and unwholesome living condi- 
tions spread typhoid, typhus and tuberculosis. 
If we classify disease by the environment 
which causes it rather than by its symptoms or 
the parts of the anatomy it affects, we find that 
there is a class that might be called the social 
diseases, made up of those we have just men- 
tioned and others of a like nature. They are 
not confined to factory workers or tenement 
dwellers. They are a constant menace to every 


[24] 


RELIGION AND HEALTH 


person in the community. This peril is well 
illustrated by Charles Kingsley’s story of the 
lady’s riding habit made in a tenement and 
used, for lack of other covering, as a blanket 
for a girl suffering from typhus fever. The 
riding habit then carried the vermin infected 
with the germs of this fever to the home of 
wealth in a distant part of the city. Proper 
light, air and sanitation could overcome all this 
kind of disease. An application of a social re- 
ligion which teaches every man to be his 
brother’s keeper is the best therapeutic agency 
for combating this kind of illness. 

In recent years the science of medicine has 
discovered that disordered nerves are as real a 
disease as any caused by germs. Modern life 
with its constant speeding up of business, city 
conditions where the tension never relaxes, and 
the different forms of recreation indulged in by 
the mass of people, all act on the nerves. The 
result is a constant increase in the number of 
people suffering from nervous trouble. The 
scientific treatment of disordered nerves is com- 
paratively young. 

Two things are of unquestionable benefit to 


[25] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


these sufferers: the first is a cheerful disposition 
and the second an ability to control the fear 
mania. Faith is able to create a cheerful and 
brave spirit, and faith is one of the funda- 
mental principles of religion. Faith in a lov- 
ing and able God develops a sound mind and 
a courageous outlook, and a sound mind and a 
courageous outlook are good medicines for 
nervous troubles. Religion and health in these 
cases actually cover the same ground. 
Morality, the social conscience and faith are 
elementary characteristics of religion and all 
these things have a direct influence on health. 
A recognition of these facts gives an undeniable 
foundation for saying that religion affects 
health. Many people who believe in mental 
or spiritual healing are unable to explain the 
real cause of their belief, as it is a half or un- 
conscious reaction of the mind to a thought it 
can hardly express. This conviction is founded 
on a truth, but the truth is usually misunder- 
stood by those who most ardently preach it. 
The thing we now want to discover is the 
common denominator, if such a thing exists, 
in these efforts to heal the body by spiritual 
[26] 


RELIGION AND HEALTH 


means. Some of the religious cults advocate 
quietness, others prayer or relaxation or the 
denial of suffering. An analysis of the methods 
used indicates that the common element under- 
lying all their work is some application of the 
principle of faith. 

For example, consider Emile Coue’s dictum, 
“Day by day, in every way, I am getting better 
and better.” This is nothing more than an 
original and unique application of the principle 
_of prayer tohealth. The emphasis is gained by 
repetition and the avowed object is to stimu- 
late and make active the subconscious mind. 
The healing may come from the activity of the 
subconscious mind or it may come from the 
conscious mind because of the faith in physical 
improvement it develops. That is what I 
mean by saying that in the last analysis the 
healing principle is always some form of faith. 
It is faith either in a system, person or a sym- 
bol; and while it is sometimes avowed, it is 
frequently used without being recognized. 

Faith, to have any therapeutic value, must 
be an attitude of life and not merely a sporadic 
effort of the mind to meet an emergency. No 


[27] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


one who is living a selfish or sensual life can 
create the spiritual atmosphere that reflects 
on bodily ailments. This life of faith comes 
only by cultivation. It is the yielding of the 
ego to spiritual ideals and is accompanied by 
simple living. Faith is not the anguish of 
mind due to suffering caused by sin, but it is 
the abhorrence of evil because it is evil. It 
cannot be created by an emergency prayer of- 
fered in a moment of fear. Faith is the soul’s 
growth through a desire to assimilate the high- 
est known ideals at all cost. It is not a sure 
cure for all diseases, but it is a splendid spiritual 
stimulant that gives strength to the weak and 
proves itself an unfailing source of comfort in 
times of suffering and sorrow. It is always a 
good medicine and sometimes works wonders. 
Every physician recognizes the therapeutic 
value of faith. It is one of the first things he 
seeks to develop in his patient, as without it 
the best medicine is limited in its effects. I 
have been told by a prominent surgeon that he 
would not operate on persons who had defi- 
nitely made up their minds that their case was 
hopeless, as their mental attitude worked as an 


[28] 


RELIGION AND HEALTH 


actual barrier to health. These patients may 
not be neurasthenics, but the conviction that 
they cannot get well is sure to increase the 
difficulty of recovery. 

Religion is the mother of faith. It either 
develops a faith in God that sustains a person 
in hours of suffering or it cultivates confidence 
in an unseen power that is working for the in- 
dividual’s well-being. In either case it lays a 
foundation on which medicine can do its best 
work. 

Religion as the only therapeutic has had its 
day. It held the field for many centuries and 
sradually lost its power through its inability 
to create a panacea for every humanill. It has 
a place and an important one in the sphere of 
human health as a supplement to medicine. 

Personal morality, the social conscience and 
faith are all good medicines. They can conquer 
the majority of ills from which mankind suf- 
fers, but there are some diseases that have no 
immorality or lack of faith as a cause. The 
advice and guidance of the man of trained ex- 
perience is still necessary. It would be a sad 
day for the world if we gave up the methods 


[29] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


of investigation and the means used to control 
typhoid, yellow fever and other scourges that 
in olden times swept the earth like devastating 
floods. We may not like the vaccine used to 
prevent typhoid, but those who talk against 
its use blind their eyes to the suffering typhoid 
has caused in the past. Years ago I had the 
privilege of going through the yellow fever 
camp near Havana where Dr. Walter Reed 
was carrying on the investigations which finally 
conquered this scourge of the tropics. He had 
a theory as a foundation for his research, but 
he promised no sure cure for yellow fever. By 
his careful investigation and numerous experi- 
ments he finally proved that the mosquito car- 
ried the fever and in his discovery laid the 
foundations for the victory over it. By con- 
trolling the mosquitoes the spread of the fever 
was stopped, and society benefited even more 
than if a method of curing the disease had been 
found. 

In this connection it is necessary to speak 
of those separate or individual cases where a 
complete cure has been affected by mental 
effort, an act of faith or a genuine prayer. 


[30] 


RELIGION AND HEALTH 


That such cases exist is more than probable. 
In this strange world of ours it would be either 
a very Wise man or a very self-opinionated man 
that would dare say what can or cannot’ be. 
The law of probability may seem to be against 
them, but no one yet knows all about the hu- 
man body or all the power begotten by faith. 
Many things must be considered in connec- 
tion with these cures. The first is the possibil- 
ity of a wrong diagnosis. The patient may 
not have had the disease the doctors said he 
had. Many symptoms are so accurately imi- 
tated by disordered nerves that even special- 
ists sometimes err. The second is the number 
of physical disorders that cure themselves in 
time. The body has tremendous recuperative 
power and in many cases all medical science 
claims to do is to assist the recuperative activi- 
ties inherent inhuman nature. Dr. Richard C. 
Cabot says there are only eight out of two hun- 
dred and fifteen classified diseases directly cur- 
able by drugs. The physician assists the pa- 
tient afflicted with a disorder for which no 
known remedy exists by building up his resist- 
ance and stimulating his courage. Many cures 


[31] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


reported by religious cults are merely the re- 
sult of this natural resistance assisted by spirit- 
ual and mental stimulants. 

Another important point to be remembered 
is the number of physical troubles that come 
from disordered nerves. Dr. Paul DuBois 
claims that ninety percent of all digestive trou- 
bles are due to disordered nerves and not to 
physical causes. All these things must be given 
due consideration before there can be any jus- 
tification for claiming miraculous help. 

One weakness inherent in all these cults 
must be recognized. Sometimes they fail to 
administer the treatment or drug that is de- 
manded to heal sickness because of loyalty to 
their faith. They admit but one means to heal 
the body and so not only fail to work wonders 
but cause needless suffering and sometimes are 
responsible for the patient’s death. 

Before vouching for the truth of any faith 
cure it is necessary to know its whole history— 
not only its past history but its future history 
as well. People are too prone to talk of mir- 
acles performed in their behalf. Sometimes 
the sufferers only enjoy a temporary allevia- 


[32] 


RELIGION AND HEALTH 


tion of their ailment, which they believe to be 
a permanent cure. One April day some years 
ago, a lady, who had some months previously 
shown symptoms of cancer, told me she had 
been cured by a man who professed to heal dis- 
ease by faith instead of by medicine or opera- 
tions. The following June her trouble became 
so acute she was forced to seek a physician’s 
advice. A doctor who attended the operation 
told me the surgeon in charge after making the 
incision turned to him and said, “This cancer 
has gone too far for an operation to be success- 
ful. All we can do is to let nature take its 
course.” The patient died in November. This 
incident indicates the necessity of knowing the 
future developments of a case as well as the as- 
sertions made by the patient. Any one who had 
talked to this individual in April would have 
had her own word for saying she had been 
healed of cancer by faith. Time proved that 
the statement was a mistake. 

Medicine and religion should work hand in 
hand for health. In Bergson’s treatment of 
the intellect and emotions we find a philosophi- 
cal foundation for this dual treatment of 


[33 ] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


disease. He claims the intellect is man’s in- 
strument for dealing with matter and for this 
purpose it has been developed to its present 
state of efficiency. It has had to meet every 
problem that has arisen and it has been 
strengthened by struggling with hard questions 
until a solution was found. The emotions 
give man his contact with ultimate reality. Let 
us apply these ideas to the treatment of dis- 
ease. Some forms of ill health are caused by 
the wounds inflicted on human tissues by ani- 
mate or inanimate matter. For example, the 
bite of a bull dog, or the action of tubercle 
bacilli in the lungs, causes wounds in different 
parts of a man’s anatomy. A bullet wound 
that tears the flesh or a blow that breaks a bone 
causes suffering of essentially the same order. 
In every one of these cases the ill health comes 
from wounded tissues that have been attacked 
by a foreign substance. They are impairments 
of the soul’s dwelling place that should be dealt 
with by the intellect—the part of man’s equip- 
ment that deals with all his relations with 
matter. For healing they need an application 


[34] 


RELIGION AND HEALTH 


of the things the intellect deals with—material 
things. 

The health of an individual is sometimes 
affected by disordered emotions or nervous 
troubles. This kind of affliction is as real 
and causes as much suffering as the purely 
physical. It is possible to cure these ailments 
by reorganizing the emotional nature. This is 
often best done by religion, which is always 
connected with the emotional side of human 
nature. Even in cases when foreign substances 
have attacked the organism it is possible to 
ease pain and stimulate recovery by strength- 
ening the natural resistance of the body by the 
action of the mind. This mental attitude as- 
sists in healing the body and it is developed 
_ by a religious faith. 

Besides intellect and emotions man has a 
balance wheel that acts as judge and arbiter 
between these primary elements of human na- 
ture. It is called common sense and functions 
just as well among illiterate people as in uni- 
versity graduates. Common sense should be 
the final judge between scientific medicine and 


[35] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


faith healing. An application of scientific med- 
icine to a physical disorder is no indication of 
a lack of faith and no proof of irreligion. 
Many people who use medicine believe that 
the cure is due to God, who acts through medi- 
cine, even as He nourishes the body with food. 
Faith codperates with materia medica in the 
alleviation of suffering and in improving 
health. The physician and the theologian may 
define its influence and activity in different ways 
but the layman can thank God for the doctor 
and also give thanks that there is a God who 
helps. Religion and medicine do not occupy 
mutually exclusive fields in human life. 
Prayers and pills both affect health. 


[36] 


Chapter II 


Sin and Sickness 


N this chapter we have to consider an un- 
pleasant and unpopular subject. Any dis- 
cussion of sin is disagreeable, as it has to deal 
with the darkest element of human nature and 
no juggling of words or beauty of diction can 
change the facts. Sin is a comprehensive term 
which defines the things men are prone to do 
in spite of the protests of their conscience. It 
has to include the vagaries of the mind and its 
tendency to brood on unclean things; the lusts 
of the flesh; selfish disregard of others; the 
animal desire for satisfaction, no matter what 
it costs; and the unethical, unjust or unwhole- 
some relations of the individual to society. 
Sin is not a mistake in judgment. It is a dis- 
obedience to the individual’s conscience and a 
disregard of society’s standard of conduct. Sin 


[37] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


is the gratification of some desire without re- 
gard to the ethics or morals involved in attain- 
ing the thing sought for. 

With this definition of sin it follows that 
all sin retards the moral and spiritual improve- 
ment of the race, perpetuates unwholesome 
customs and practices and injures both individ- 
uals and society. Sin destroys the inherent 
desire of men for religion: it comes between 
the individual and God, and hides God. The 
loss of God destroys mental poise and thereby 
injures the nerves. It also injures physical 
health by excessive indulgence in unwholesome 
things. 

The effect of sin on health may be summed 
up as follows: Sin has a bad effect on the mind 
through evil thoughts and unwholesome de- 
sires; the mind reacts on the nerves and the 
nerves, when they are irritated or overstimu- 
lated, disorganize the functions of the body 
and develop physical weakness or illness. 

Any recognition of the power and universal- 
ity of sin is unpopular. The tendency of some 
modern thinkers and of others who claim to 
be religious leaders is to ignore or speak lightly 


[38] 


SIN AND SICKNESS 


of sin. They call it an atavistic trait of human 
nature. Unquestionably some of its mani- 
festations show a reversion to an earlier social 
life and a crude moral code. These things are 
the survival of a brutish age which established 
habits of thought and ideals of conduct not yet 
outgrown. The people who emphasize this 
atavistic element of sin frequently go further 
and assert sin has no positively bad effects, and 
they say it is merely the absence of good. The 
exponents of this school speak of sin as “‘not 
good.” This is a juggling of words and accom- 
plishes nothing. The fact is, sin has disastrous 
effects on character, health and religious faith 
and any effort to evade the issue leads to con- 
fusion and danger. 

Any one who doubts the ability of sin to 
wreck lives and homes, ruin health and de- 
stroy reputations is advised to make a first-hand 
study of the subject. This cannot be made in 
the quiet atmosphere of a study or public li- 
brary. It has to be done in those places where 
sin can be seen and its effects tabulated. Go to 
the courts and prisons, the hospitals and insane 
asylums and then, with the actual facts in hand, 


[39] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


estimate how many of the cases found are 
either the direct or indirect result of impurity, 
dishonesty, unclean thinking or selfish indul- 
gence. Such an investigation will prove be- 
yond a question of doubt that sin is the great 
destroyer of physical health, mental peace, 
wholesome living and human happiness. 

While admitting these facts the author claims 
no kinship with the old Scotch woman who be- 
lieved the doctrine of total depravity was the 
most comforting of all doctrines because it was 
so easy to live up to. It is easily lived up to 
because mankind is weak; and that is often 
overlooked. ‘The modern tendency to disre- 
gard the strength of sin and the suffering it 
causes is dangerous because it gives a relentless 
enemy an opportunity to destroy the best things 
in life while the conscience is dulled by a false 
sense of security and the attention is absorbed 
in other things. 

A frank and fearless recognition of both the 
destructive and constructive elements of the 
mind does not lead to pessimism and despair, 
but it shows the student the nature of the things 
which need to be controlled or overcome, and 


[40] 


SIN AND SICKNESS 


it makes clear the means at man’s disposal 
for attaining this end. 

Sin works most effectively in the darkness 
or behind the scenes. It is not able to with- 
stand the light of day or public criticism. If 
a man’s thought-life could only be reviewed 
and criticized by his family and friends before 
the thoughts had borne fruit in evil deeds, 
many a convict would have been spared his 
prison sentence, and many a physical wreck 
would still be enjoying health and strength. 
Sin has been able to warp the minds of these 
sufferers and then after it has become vigorous 
in the obscurity of their minds, it has wrecked 
their lives. 

The object of this chapter is to show the 
destructive power of evil. In the latter part 
of the book it will be shown how a vital Chris- 
tian faith can overcome the power of evil. 

Some general statements have already been 
made in both this and the previous chapter 
showing how much sickness is caused by sin. 
It is now necessary to develop the subject more 
fully. After a good deal of investigation, ob- 
servation and consideration, the author is pre- 


[41] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


pared to assert his firm conviction that the vast 
majority of all the physical suffering which 
afflicts mankind is either directly or indirectly 
due to sin. This assertion is made without 
hesitation but it is true only when sin is defined 
in a comprehensive way. Besides the elements 
of sin already mentioned it is necessary to rec- 
ognize the sin of overindulgence in whole- 
some things. In this connection it is not so 
much the thing indulged in but the amount of 
indulgence which is practiced. We will now 
endeavor to clinch our argument by referring 
to specific cases which illustrate the point we 
are trying to prove. 

No one denies venereal diseases are the direct 
result of sin. It is such bad taste to talk of 
these loathesome afflictions people often con- 
sider them as rare and unusual forms of sick- 
ness. The exact-opposite is the truth. When 
a large proportion of the entire male popula- 
tion of the country was subjected to a medical 
examination for the Army in 1917, the wide 
extent of these diseases wasshown. The author 
worked in one camp where there were 7,000 


[42] 


SIN AND SICKNESS 


venereal cases. Years ago he was connected 
with a social settlement and one day the physi- 
cal director told him the young men in the 
athletic club thought very little more of a case 
of gonorrhea than they did of a cold in the 
head, “And the one is just about as common 
as the other,” he said. If the effects of venereal 
disease were limited to the men who contracted 
them by self-indulgence they would be bad 
enough and worthy of careful study, but the 
suffering they cause reaches far beyond the 
patient’s own life. Some of these diseases may 
remain dormant in a man’s body for years and 
then manifest themselves by ruining the health 
of an innocent wife. Parents should point out 
this danger to their daughters and no woman 
should be permitted to marry a man who has 
had a venereal disease without first knowing 
the danger she is running. There is some rea- 
son to believe these diseases may affect the 
health of the sufferer’s children. The evidence 
here is open to question but it is possible that 
the lives and health of innocent children may 


be endangered. They may not develop the 
[43] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


specific disease their father had, but it may 
reveal its presence in a lowered vitality, dis- 
ordered nerves or a weakened intelligence. 

As a class venereal diseases cause about as 
much suffering as any other form of illness. 
They are so widely scattered over the country 
as to make them a menace to the innocent as 
well as the guilty. Since these diseases are the 
direct result of sin, it follows that a religion 
which teaches chastity, self-control and purity 
can eradicate them by preventive measures. _ 

The excessive indulgence in innocent recrea- 
tions on the part of young people may seriously 
injure their own and their children’s health. 
Do not consider the author puritanical when 
he proclaims the danger of late hours, exces- 
sive dancing, the continual stirring up of the 
emotions by moving pictures and _ theaters. 
None of these things is physically harmful 
when used in moderation. A strong case may 
be made out for their usefulness as a whole- 
some relaxation from hard work and the mo- 
notony of life. The danger comes from exces- 
sive indulgence. The danger is aggravated 
by the use of alcohol and nicotine, as these 


[44] 


SIN AND SICKNESS 


drugs act on the nerves and the nerves are al- 
ready overwrought. Young people who burn 
up their nervous energy in this or any other 
way, are shocked after marriage to discover 
their children are afflicted with disordered 
nerves, or are handicapped for their life’s work 
by a lowered vitality. The parents’ sin is the 
direct cause of the children’s ill health and yet 
many people blame God for their children’s 
weakness! The suffering which results in these 
cases may continue for two or three generations. 
The sufferer is innocent but the nervous trou- 
bles which afflict him or her are a direct result 
of a parent’s sin. I do not intend to defend 
these laws of nature or explain why they exist. 
They may seem fair or unfair to human minds. 
The only thing of interest to us is to discover 
the facts and then try and discover how human- 
ity can deal with them in its efforts to over- 
come ill health. 

The same nervous tension and lowered vital- 
ity may be bequeathed to children by a parent’s 
excessive indulgence in business. A man may 
be so ambitious to earn money, win recognition 
of his fellow men and attain the chimera of 


[45 ] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


success as to burn up his nervous force to such 
a degree that he seriously injures his offspring. 
A woman may be caught in the whirl of society, 
social work or intensive application to the task 
of earning her daily bread to the injury of her 
functions of motherhood. Men and women who 
expect to have families should conserve their 
physical and nervous strength so as to guaran- 
tee, as far as possible, to their offspring sound 
bodies, nerves and physical vigor. It is the 
height of folly to ignore these truths and blame 
God for sickness. Life is ruled by immutable 
laws. The ignoring of these Jaws is sinful. 
Broken laws result in ill health and injure the 
innocent as well as the guilty. 

There are some sins which directly injure 
the nerves and, therefore, injure health. These 
are worry, anger and fear. Let us consider 
each of these separately. 

Many people consider worry a virtue and ob- 
ject to classifying it as a sin. They make the 
mistake of classifying worry as “forethought.” 
These two mental activities are entirely differ- 
ent in both their purpose and the effect they 
have on the mind. Forethought is the whole- 

[46] 


SIN AND SICKNESS 


some planning of a wise man to meet future 
conditions or emergencies. It has no element 
of fear or unrest in it, as it only includes an 
estimation of the individual’s probable require- 
ments and the resources he will have at his dis- 
posal at a future time. Worry always contains 
an element of fear, which includes an irritation 
of the nervous system. It is the fretting of the 
nerves over actual or imaginary troubles. It 
is sometimes used as a lazy man’s substitute 
for hard work, as he finds it easier to worry 
over his difficulties than to undertake the hard 
task of solving them by clear thinking, actual 
work or self-sacrifice. It must be admitted 
some people find a peculiar pleasure in worry- 
ing. They do not realize how much they en- 
joy it but nevertheless they obtain real thrills 
from imagining all sorts of unpleasant and 
difficult situations which never come to pass. 
Christians ought to recognize the sin of worry- 
ing as Christ in the Sermon on the Mount re- 
peatedly warned His disciples against it (Matt. 
6: 19-34). Worry generates a poison in the 
body which injures the nervous system, and 
healthy nerves are essential to physical health. 


[47] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


Disordered nerves are one of the most preva- 
lent causes of suffering we know anything 
about. Nervous troubles only occasionally re- 
sult in death but they are certainly the cham- 
pion of all illness when it comes to destroying 
the joy of living. Unhealthy nerves upset 
the digestive organs, cause insomnia and head- 
aches; create aches and pains which are none 
the less real and harmful because they lack 
any organic reality; darken the mind; and re- 
flect themselves in innumerable ways impossi- 
ble to specify here. 

Anger has the same effect on the nerves 
as worry and also destroys health. The meek- 
ness of Christ seems to be an exaggeration of a 
human trait of character which does not appeal 
to the average man. ‘The fact remains, the 
meek man or the one who is not always stand- 
ing up for his rights, fighting for his ideals, or 
sensitive about his own reputation is the one 
who has developed a mental poise and thus 
freed himself from a destructive force which 
sometimes ruins both character and health. 
This poison is generated by the loss of temper, 
and its ability to injure both the body and soul 

[48] 


SIN AND SICKNESS 


is great. The loss of temper may be a violent 
and uncontrollable outburst or it may be sup- 
pressed. Probably the suppression of the tem- 
per is as bad, if not worse, for physical health 
than the violent outburst. The outburst is 
condemned by social custom but it burns it- 
self up and is gone. Suppressed anger may be 
pushed into the subconscious mind and de- 
velop hidden complexes which later bear fruit 
in nervous disorders which ruin health. These 
complexes have only recently been discovered 
but they probably cause many cases of nervous 
trouble and seriously injure the mind. Both 
nervous disorders and insanity have increased 
to such an alarming degree in recent years that 
any means of overcoming them would be wel- 
comed by the medical world. The evil effects 
of anger are not confined to the individual who 
loses his temper, but it may injure an innocent 
bystander or the individual with whom he is 
angry. Any one who comes into contact with 
a violently angry person has his nerves, the cir- 
culation of his blood and his digestion disor- 
ganized. Physical well-being depends on the 
regular and automatic functioning of the 


[49] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


nerves, heart and digestion; therefore although 
a person may be innocent of any wrongdoing 
he suffers from the effects of another’s sin, 
when he has to submit to or observe his anger. 

Fear is a disturber of the nerves and a cause 
of ill health. Acute fear acts directly on the 
heart. It causes shock and faintness. It up- 
sets the nerves and makes them register pains 
and aches which have no reality. The pains 
and aches are as real and cause as much suffer- 
ing as if they were the result of some physical 
disturbance or injury. Fear is due to a lack of 
faith. Religion creates faith and it is a sin 
to cultivate, yield to, or harbor fear. Christ 
said to His disciples, “Fear not” (Luke 12:5). 

To round out our study of sin two other 
forms of illness must now be considered: the 
first are those which are caused by intemper- 
ance, and the second is the group which we 
called the “social diseases” in the preceding 
chapter. | 

Intemperance in all its forms is considered 
a sin by Christians. Many religious people 
limit their idea of intemperance to the use of 
alcohol as a beverage. This is a mistaken con- 


[50] 


SIN AND SICKNESS 


ception of intemperance which must be 
cuarded against, as doctors say more people 
die from overeating than from overdrinking. 
Gluttony, under a less offensive name, is a 
common fault. People eat for the pleasure of 
eating rather than for nourishment Over- 
loading the stomach with rich food is gluttony, 
and gluttony is a sin. The dependence on ca- 
thartics and digestive tablets destroys nature’s 
ability to care for the assimilation of food and 
the elimination of the waste products. Stom- 
ach and intestinal disorders follow. Ill health 
in all such cases is directly due to sin. 

The use of alcohol as a beverage is playing 
with poison. The body can assimilate a mod- 
erate amount of this poison, but, as we have al- 
ready seen, Dr. Oscar H. Rogers claims it is 
never harmless. Moderation in both eating 
and drinking, which is the temperate life ad- 
vocated by true religion, would prevent many 
forms of ill health which are now prevalent. 

The statements already made about “social 
diseases,” by which we mean typhoid, diph- 
theria and the like, fits right into this discus- 
sion. It is only necessary to add: Sin, as it is 


Badly 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


conceived of in this chapter, is the direct cause 
in every one of these cases.* 

Society has some responsibility to babies 
born within its borders. They should have at 
least a chance for health and happiness. We 
do not want a paternalistic government, but 
it is a sin of pharisaism entirely to ignore this 
obligation, as the malnutrition of children and 
overwork while they are still immature weak- 
ens their bodies and assures them of ill health 
in their mature years. Every child should be 
given a chance to develop a vigorous body, as 
physical weakness makes men and women im- 
moral, dishonest and lazy, and causes much 
antisocial propaganda. These people have bod- 
ily aches and pains, irritated nerves and de- 
spair in their hearts. Give them vigorous bod- 
ies which find enjoyment in hard work and the 
social atmosphere will be clarified. Sin, as it 
acts on the physical man, is a social menace 
which is overlooked, but none the less real. 

In the early part of the chapter the state- 

* Of course a sporadic case of typhoid or diphtheria may 


be developed by a situation not yet known about, but a 
careful application of the Golden Rule would eliminate even 


these cases, 
[52] 


SIN AND SICKNESS 


ment was made that sin directly or indirectly 
caused the bulk of suffering which afflicts hu- 
manity. Was that an overstatement? We 
have shown that all venereal diseases, a great 
many nervous disorders, all the physical ail- 
ments which come from intemperance in both 
eating and drinking, the burdens placed on 
families and society by typhoid and diphtheria, 
are all the result of some form of sin. The 
reader’s own intelligence must act as the judge 
in this matter, but enough has been said to 
make even a thoughtless man stop and think. 
When people start to think seriously on these 
questions, they will commence to appreciate 
their need of religion. An appreciation of the 
value of religion is a step towards a spiritual 
life, and that is the goal we are groping our 
way toward. 


[33] 


Chapter III 


What Kind of Illness Can Faith 
Cure? 


N the previous chapters we have gathered 
together some of the facts which show the 
connection between religion and health. If 
we admit, and I believe the evidence presented 
justifies this admission, that religion does af- 
fect health, the question immediately arises, 
What kind of illness can faith cure? 

We have just been considering the amount 
of sickness and ill health caused by sin. It 
seems logical to deduct from the facts we have 
presented a hypothesis which might be ex- 
pressed in this way: any sickness which is 
caused by sin can be either prevented or helped 
by a proper use of religious faith. ‘True reli- 
gion is at war with sin. If sin could be elimi- 
nated from human nature the health of indi- 
viduals and society would be improved. For 
some diseases, such as syphilis and tuberculosis, 


[54] 


WHAT KIND OF ILLNESS CAN FAITH CURE? 


to consider two extreme cases, the benefit of a 
religious faith is like preventive medicine. Re- 
ligion may not cure these diseases after they 
have developed, but it could eradicate them 
from human experience, even in the same way 
as yellow fever is being conquered by the de- 
struction of the mosquito. 

Other forms of ill health, due to nervous dis- 
orders, may be helped or cured by the strength- 
ening and healing activities of a religious faith, 
which stimulates the mind, and, through the 
mind, affects the body. The ability of faith 
or mental treatments to assist in curing func- 
tional disorders and nervous troubles has al- 
ready won a wide recognition in medical sci- 
ence. We have already emphasized both the 
extent and the actuality of these ailments. It 
is a mistake to call them imaginary diseases, as 
the suffering they cause is real, and the loss of 
health is positive. If religion as a preventive 
medicine can wipe out venereal disease, tuber- 
culosis, and other ailments which develop from 
social carelessness, and by acting on the mind 
through faith heal functional disorders and as- 
sist In curing nervous troubles, it has an impor- 


[53] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


tant place in a scientific pharmacopceia. That 
is an important statement which should be 
noted, as it prepares the reader’s mind for the 
constructive program which is outlined in the 
latter part of the book. The intellect must 
recognize both the healing element of faith 
and also the scientific facts on which it rests 
before any one of intelligence can accept a re- 
ligious program as a means of assisting in heal- 
ing sickness. 

It is now necessary, while still keeping close. 
to undeniable facts, to bring the imagination 
into play. Many successful methods of heal- 
ing sickness have been discovered by men who 
had the courage to follow their imagination 
into new fields of research. As long as the im- 
agination is guarded by common sense and 
keeps close to actual facts, such adventuring 
cannot be harmful, and may lead to new dis- 
coveries. And I am ready to admit there are 
some indications that religious faith may be 
used in dealing with organic troubles. These 
suggestions are made tentatively, and it is cons 
ceded at once they are not conclusive. The ob- 
ject of this book is to show how faith healing, 

[56] 


WHAT KIND OF ILLNESS CAN FAITH CURE? 


in its best form, does not outrage common 
sense, and the reader is asked to be patient and 
consider carefully the suggestions offered. 

Religious faith, acting through the mind, 
does have a direct effect on the physical or- 
gans, and may be used to alleviate suffering 
and even cure disease. Just how this is done 
we may not be able to tabulate in a scientific 
formula, but the power of religious faith is as 
real and as important as that of any known 
drug. Consider for a moment some of the 
things which may be done by religious faith 
and the possible effects these things have in 
combating an organic trouble. 

Religious faith is able to affect the circula- 
tion of the blood, by stimulating a person’s 
vitality. It reveals its effectiveness in some 
cases by raising a subnormal temperature, and 
in other cases by controlling or lessening fever ; 
it affects the secretions of the glands; it may 
not heal a broken bone, but it soothes the 
nerves so that nature can do its work more 
easily. Any mental discipline which is able to 
do these things has as important a place in a 
scientific pharmacopoeia as drugs, for some 


[57] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


drugs are used to do the same things which we 
have just seen faith does. Nature is always 
healing, and medicines only assist and codper- 
ate in this work. Faith also can be used in a 
wise and constructive way as a supplementary 
and coéperating agency. 

Now let us consider an organic trouble which 
appears at first sight to be beyond the reach of 
any form of mental therapeutics. We will 
take a case of organic heart trouble. Physi- 
cians tell patients who have heart trouble to 
guard against worry, anger, and fear, as these 
emotions have a bad effect on the action of the 
heart. A personal and vital religious faith 
calms the spirit and gives a confident outlook 
on life which destroys fear and worry, and re- 
veals its power by an improvement in the or- 
ganic condition of the patient. Faith certainly, 
is beneficial in these cases. 

Religious faith may have an important place 
in dealing with contagious and infectious dis- 
eases. As a general rule, people who are un- 
afraid of a disease are less susceptible to it 
than those who are afraid of it. It does not 
follow that fear always brings on the disease, 


[58] 


WHAT KIND OF ILLNESS CAN FAITH CURE? 


nor is absence of fear a sure protection, but 
there seems to be some connection between fear 
and the physical condition of the body which 
must be reckoned with. This relationship may 
be slight, but it is worth investigation. 

Faith develops a quiet mind, and a quiet 
mind is able to lessen fever. While fever is 
only a symptom, it weakens the constitution 
and retards recovery. As yet we have no 
knowledge of how faith could eliminate germs, 
but religion eliminates fear, which frequently 
ageravates fever, and may be a valuable sup- 
plementary agency in dealing with these cases. 
It may be possible to stimulate the circulation 
of the blood, gland activities, and other func- 
tions of the body by faith to such a degree as 
to make them antagonistic to germ attacks and 
thus directly assist recovery. It may be pos- 
sible through religious faith to build up a phys- 
ical resistance to the attacks of these organisms 
which is as yet unrealized. Some physicians 
doubt the possibility of accomplishing any- 
thing in this way, but it is suggested here in 
an effort to show how the intellect may inter- 
pret the effects of faith and still accept the re- 

[59] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


sults of medical science. It is a mistake arbi- 
trarily to limit the possibilities of faith by 
a prioré reasoning when we know it has remark- 
able effects on physical health which are not 
yet fully understood. 

It may be possible to use religious faith in 
the treatment of mental disorders to a degree 
not yet recognized. This assertion is made 
while it is admitted mental disease often takes 
the form of a religious mania. The overem- 
phasis of emotional religion leads to mental 
disturbances but does not alter the fact of the 
constructive and quieting effects of a sound 
religious faith. 

A case came under the writer’s attention 
which illustrates this point. An individual 
with a strong Christian character was afflicted 
with “a paranoid condition.” His case was 
diagnosed by several leading specialists, who 
said it was hopeless. The patient went to a 
sanatorium for some months and was finally 
discharged as an arrested case. The physician 
in charge of this patient at the sanatorium said 
it was one of the most encouraging cases he 
had ever had. He believed that the arresting 

[60] 


WHAT KIND OF ILLNESS CAN FAITH CURE®% 


of the disease (just notice that he did not say 
the patient was cured) was due to the fact that 
the sufferer had an unusually fine character and 
was willing to follow the advice of his physi- 
cian in all details. According to the doctor the 
improvement was due to character and educa- 
tion.* Christian friends of the sufferer believe 
his improvement was due to faith. The reader 
can form his own opinion as to which is cor- 
tect. But we must not forget that the charac- 
ter which was the means of arresting the trou- 
ble was due to a Christian faith. If education 
and character are useful in conquering mental 
troubles, the door is opened for saying religion 
has a place in dealing with them. 

Mental diseases frequently develop from the 
breaking down of the individual’s self-control. 


* The physician’s explanation of this case is interesting. 
“Of course from the standpoint of dynamic psychology our 
characters or personalities are developed along evolution- 
ary lines and show the effect of our early guiding and 
environment. Accordingly all of us have some personality 
defects and each one of us deals with his or her defects 
in a different manner. In this particular case I believe 
that education and the strong sense of right and wrong 
were the things that enabled the patient to suppress those 
tensions which caused his troubles and made it possible 
for him, again, to adjust himself to his environment. His 
religious faith, in my opinion, served as an outlet and made 
the sublimation of those tensions possible.” 

FRANKLIN C. Youne, M.D. 


[61] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


Day dreams preoccupy the mind to the exclu- 
sion of the real world. Paroxysms of anger 
sweep the mind with devastating force; im- 
moral and lascivious thinking undermine con- 
science, character, and the ability to properly 
apply mental processes to everyday conditions. 
Everything that builds up character and but- 
tresses self-control tends to strengthen the 
mind. The Christian faith, when it is properly 
understood and rightly applied to physical and 
mental life, has this result; therefore, religious 
faith can help in stopping the increase of the 
mental disorders which at the present time are 
increasing at a rate to give thoughtful people 
serious concern for the future. 

The immense value of religion as a form of 
preventive medicine has been spoken of sev- 
eral times. It is only necessary now to remind 
the reader that all forms of ill health which 
come directly or indirectly from immorality, 
intemperance, or any such cause, could in time 
be eliminated by a proper application of reli- 
gion to human conduct. Bad ventilation, poor 
sanitation, and unwholesome living conditions 
cause much illness. A thoroughgoing applica- 


[62] 


WHAT KIND OF ILLNESS CAN FAITH CURE? 


tion of the social gospel would wipe out all 
disease which results from these things. 
When due emphasis is given to all the facts 
we have been considering we are forced to ad- 
mit religion is not a mere question of personal 
opinion, but instead it is one of the most tre- 
mendous forces men have at their disposal for 
cultivating both personal and social health. 
The time has not yet come, and I doubt if 
it ever will come, when mankind can dispense 
with scientific medicine. God does not bless 
willful ignorance or careless thinking. He has 
given men intelligent minds to help them live 
healthy and useful lives. Men have been so 
carried away with their conquest of the mate- 
rial world they have overlooked and forgotten 
the importance of the spiritual. But enough 
pioneer work has been done to indicate the pos- 
sibility of adding spiritual discipline to the 
pharmacopeeia. Faith may believe a day will 
come when it will be possible to accomplish, 
through religion, more than is now dreamed of, 
but it is the part of wisdom and common sense 
to move slowly in all cases dealing with physi- 
cal health. Every one must guard against ex- 


[63] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


travagant and unreasonable claims. There is 
no reason why the man of faith cannot apply 
his religion to all forms of ill health as a sup- 
plement to scientific medicine, but care must be 
taken to prevent an enthusiastic faith sweeping 
him off his feet and leading him to unjustified 
conclusions which may permanently injure both 
his own body and the health of his family. Do 
not give up a doctor because of a belief in faith 
healing. Medicine and faith attain the best 
results when they are joined in double har- 
ness. As a team they give promise of aiding 
man to win his age-long struggle against sick- 
ness, suffering, and sorrow. 


[64] 


Chapter IV 


Since Faith Can Heal, Why Does 
It Sometimes Fail to Heal? 


HRIST healed the sick. His ministry of 
healing is so interwoven with His preach- 
ing and teaching in the gospel story that it is 
impossible to cut it out without destroying the 
whole narrative. He used faith as a therapeu- 
tic agency. This assumption is justified by 
the number of times faith is specifically men- 
tioned as the direct cause of the sufferer’s re- 
covery and also by the fact that it is distinctly 
stated He was unable to do any mighty works 
in His own country “because of their unbelief,” 
or lack of faith. To understand how faith can 
heal the sick it is necessary to have a clear defi- 
nition of what we mean by faith. 
Many people think of faith as a substitute 
for their own efforts. It seems to be a state of 
mind which takes the place of human initia- 


tive and hard work. This idea destroys its 
[65] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


power and prevents the individual from mak- 
ing the effort necessary for its cultivation. 
Faith is a spiritual attitude that takes pos- 
session of the mind, and it is a hard thing to 
develop. It requires a transference of man’s 
interests in and dependence on material things 
to spiritual. A person with a physical body 
and animal passions with a universe of mate- 
rial things pressing on his senses has a difficult 
task to lift his interests into the atmosphere 
of the spiritual. A man who knows the direct 
relations of cause and effect running through 
the whole realm of science from astronomy to 
chemistry, and from physics to medicine, has 
to cultivate an entirely new point of view be- 
fore he can comprehend the power of faith and 
the way it acts. The mental point of view of 
an individual has to be guided, developed, and 
set to work in a new channel before faith be- 
comes a power with force enough to affect 
health. To be effective faith must be culti- 
vated and thoroughly developed before we ap- 
ply it to physical health. It is impossible to 
create the type of mind or the sort of interests 
required immediately. They demand nurture 


[66] 


WHY DOES IT SOMETIMES FAIL TO HEAL ¢ 


before they reach their full growth and 
strength. The individual whose life is domi- 
nated by physical interests and the enjoyment 
of stimulating his senses by the attractive ele- 
ments of animal life does not have the back- 
ground and cannot create the mental atmos- 
phere necessary for the effective use of faith. 
A faith that will help an illness must be culti- 
vated while the individual is enjoying vigorous 
health and strength. Pain and the nervous de- 
pression that accompany sickness are so real 
that the sufferer must have a strong spiritual 
foundation of faith or it will be shaken and 
perhaps destroyed by these physical conditions 
he cannot ignore or control. 

It is necessary for the individual who wants 
to enjoy the benefits of faith on his health to 
realize that he must seek faith as an end in it- 
self and not merely as a therapeutic agent. The 
object of life and point of view must be 
changed or faith does not really exist. " 

Faith is not an idle word nor something with 
a vague meaning. It stands for that mental 
and spiritual attitude towards life which was 
brought to the world by Jesus Christ. It 


[67] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


changes the objects, interests, activities, and dy- 
namics of existence. Material things, animal 
interests, the stimulation of emotions and sen- 
sations by pleasing tastes, sounds, and activi- 
ties are no longer matters of supreme impor- 
tance. The soul, ideals, helpfulness to others, 
and interest in God have taken their place. 

There is some evidence to believe that Christ 
intended His disciples to have healing power, 
and it is hard to discover any scriptural founda- 
tion for the belief that this ministry would be 
confined to his own age. 

Many intelligent people believe faith still 
heals. Investigation shows the number of 
these people to be much larger than it is often 
considered to be. It is made up of Christian 
Scientists, those who accept Mental Science 
and Psychotherapy, and many members of the 
Christian Church. These latter people do not 
object to taking medicine, but also use prayer 
in a more or less intelligent way to assist in 
healing their bodies. They are not all members 
of the Society of the Nazarene or any other 
group which advocates faith healing, and, 
therefore, it is hard to estimate their number. 


[68] 


WHY DOES IT SOMETIMES FAIL TO HEAL? 


The persistence of belief in faith healing is 
an interesting phenomenon, especially when 
the character and intelligence of those who ac- 
cept it is given due consideration. Many of 
these people report instances in their own lives 
or those of their friends where faith has shown 
its healing ability. Percy Dearmer, in “Body 
and Soul,” tabulates in the appendix forty- 
three cases of such healings which he claims are 
“typical, interesting, and well authenticated,” 
and all of which occurred in the lives of well- 
known men and women from the Seventh Cen- 
tury to the present day. 

Every investigator discovers new and inter- 
esting illustrations of healing influence of 
faith. Two incidents have come to my notice 
which are worthy of consideration. 

Some years ago a friend of mine, who is a 
physician with a large practice, had a daugh- 
ter who was desperately ill. One evening I 
called on him and found him despairing of his 
child’s recovery. “I have faith to believe that 
God works through the mind and sometimes 
heals the body,” he said, “‘but this is a different 
case. My child is being attacked and torn to 

[69] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


pieces by angry little organisms that are just 
as real as bulldogs. I cannot reach them to 
drive them away, and I do not see how it is 
possible for her to recover. This is the kind 
of case where our medical knowledge gives us 
no help, but only causes despair.” 

The physician was a man of faith besides 
being a scientific doctor. His home was sur- 
rounded and filled with an atmosphere of 
prayer. | 

Some years after his daughter’s illness the 
doctor wrote out for me just what happened, 
and his own mental and spiritual reaction to 
these events. He said, “After my talk with you 
about my attitude on prayer and my feeling or 
belief (?) that prayer could not change the 
course of an infection of such virulence and 
your agreement with me that faith would at 
least give one strength to bear with the im- 
pending loss, I seemed to feel a new security. 
Mind you, I did not pray. I was too honest 
with myself to feel that I, an infinitesimal 
atom in this universe of millions of years, had 
either a right or the presumption to ask a spirit 
so vast as God's to change, even if possible, the 


[70] 


WHY DOES IT SOMETIMES FAIL TO HEAL ®% 


course of a natural conflict. But I sat with the 
Bible on my knee and read the 23rd Psalm 
and that wonderful chapter in Job which has 
always set forth my ideal of what a physician 
should be; then some scattered passages in the 
New Testament. And I got a new grip on my- 
self. 

“Then, a day or two later, when the surgeon 
refused to operate unless I stayed in the operat- 
ing room, as he expected my daughter to die 
on the table, I had enough faith to believe that 
she would recover, and I said, ‘Go ahead.’ 
Twice we thought she might die, and the sec- 
ond time when the surgeon said she could stand 
no more, I was so determined that I answered, 
“Then we may just as well have our autopsy 
now. And he went on to the very last spot 
of infection. I do not know how this reads; 
it sounds cruel; but I believe I was guided by 
some new source of life or faith which I did not 
possess before. The child recovered from that 
moment. 

“The other side of the picture is this: that 
while I had a belief that the child would or 
might get well, I also had a tranquillity of 


[71] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


spirit that assured me if she did not get well 
her little span of life had not been lived in 
vain.” 

Some years later we were traveling together 
on a railroad and we were discussing the effect 
of faith in healing the sick. ““There is some- 
thing mysterious about the influence of religion 
in illness,” the doctor said. “Some time ago 
I had the case of a child which had tubercular 
meningitis. I know the little girl suffered from 
this trouble, and that there was no mistake in 
the diagnosis. The number of cases of this 
disease that have been reported cured is so 
small scientific men have doubts as to the ac- 
curacy of the diagnosis when a cure has been 
effected. It is reasonable to suppose that in 
some of these cases there was a mistake on the 
part of the physician, and the patient did not 
really have this disease. The medical profes- 
sion tends to the belief that an actual case is 
incurable. Now I know that there was no mis- 
take in the diagnosis of the case I am citing, as 
the tubercular organisms were found in the 
spinal fluid. I took it for granted that the pa- 
tient would die. Her parents were devout 


[72] 


WHY DOES IT SOMETIMES FAIL TO HEAL? 


Christians, and they had many friends who 
were deeply religious. The home was filled 
with and surrounded by an atmosphere of 
prayer. The child recovered.” He paused for 
a moment, and we both looked out of the win- 
dow while the train went rushing through the 
forests. “I don’t know,” he continued. “By 
all the knowledge that medical science pos- 
sesses my own child and this other little patient 
of mine should both have died. The only thing 
that was different in these cases that I can put 
my hand on was the religious faith that sur- 
rounded them. Such incidents make a man 
pause.” 

When I submitted this manuscript to the 
doctor so as to be sure I had quoted him cor- 
rectly, he returned it with these words: ““These 
two cases are so unique in my experience that 
I am willing and glad to have you use them. 
They are substantiated by scientific fact, there- 
fore the harder to believe. I am convinced that 
I have given this material world altogether too 
much consideration in the past.” 

My friend is a highly trained, scientific phy- 
sician. He had come to the end of the things 


[73] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


he could tabulate and understand, and felt 
something beyond. The man of faith can ac- 
cept all that science gives but he also reaches 


out to that which is beyond. He believes the ~~ 


spirit of God not only acts through the chan- 
nels charted out by the method we call science, : 
but also acts in ways not contrary to science, 
but beyond the reach of our present knowledge. 

Such incidents are tremendously inspiring, 
but they only illustrate one side of the truth. 
There are other cases where parents have had 
faith, and spiritually minded friends who filled 
their home where there was a sick child with 
the atmosphere of prayer, faith, and hope, but 
the child died. It is unjust.to say that these 
latter cases lacked the right formula, had a se- 
cret sin in their heart, or did not have enough 
faith. Frequently there is no basis for such 
a charge. They had the faith, they prayed, 
they yearned over the loved one, but they failed 
to ward off death.* 

Several years ago, when I was first inter- 
ested in the study of the effect of religion on 


* See “The Man from an African Jungle, "by Wa 
Wilcox, Chapter XVII, “Divine Healing.” 


[74] 


WHY DOES IT SOMETIMES FAIL TO HEAL? 


health, I was asked to attend a small meeting 
at which the Rev. Henry B. Wilson, of Boon- 
ton, New Jersey, the founder of the Society of 
the Nazarene, was to tell of his healing minis- 
try. This meeting was held in December, and 
Mr. Wilson was apparently in the best of 
health. He presented his subject interestingly 
and clearly. In the discussion that followed 
he was asked if he could explain how faith 
sometimes seemed to work miracles and at 
other times failed to get any results. He an- 
swered that death should only come after life 
was rounded out and completed, just as the 
ripened fruit drops from the tree in harvest 
time, and he expressed his belief that as faith 
increased this end would be reached. At that 
time he was steadily increasing his circle of 
friends and followers. His faith in the healing 
power of the gospel had helped many find 
health and strength. He believed in and ap- 
plied prayer to physical health. And yet sud- 
denly, a few months later, a weak heart ended 
his life on this earth.* 


* Since writing this chapter I have learned the Rev. 
Henry B. Wilson had suffered from a weak heart for 
years. His work was all done under this serious handicap. 


75) 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


I hope no one will misunderstand this refer- 
ence to Mr. Wilson. His life was so useful, his 
faith was so vital, and his purpose so exalted, 
that his death is inexplicable. The cause of his 
death is immaterial to the point at issue. Such 
cases, and there are many of them, indicate 
there are definite limits to curing illness with 
religion beyond which man cannot reach. 

The most we can claim for faith healing is, 
it sometimes works. There is no evidence for 
saying it is always successful. It cannot be a 
panacea, for all men die. It is so difficult to 
tabulate cases and differentiate between the 
effects of faith on functional disorders and or- 
ganic troubles that even the most careful and 
sympathetic investigator is left in a maze of 
uncertainties. When due consideration is given 
to these uncertainties about faith healing, one 
thing can be definitely stated. It is the height 
of folly to disregard medical science and to 
place confidence in faith healing alone. When 
used as a supplement to medicine, it is a bless- 
ing and no evil results follow. 

Intelligent people want to find some solution 
to this problem. The only way this can be 


[76] 


WHY DOES IT SOMETIMES FAIL TO HEAL ® 


done is to apply a philosophical interpretation 
to the questions of life, death, and suffering. 

Consider for a2 moment the three accounts 
the Gospels give of Christ’s raising the dead. 
For the moment let them stand without ques- 
tion or criticism. He raised Jairus’ daughter, 
the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus. 
The most that these accounts give justification 
for is that Christ in these cases simply retarded 
death. Some years ago I visited the Lake of 
Galilee, rode across the plain of Esdraelon, and 
over the hills of Samaria down to Jerusalem. 
I did not see or hear of any persons who were 
still living because Christ had conquered death 
for them and given them eternal life in a phys- 
ical body. JI have read many books on Pales- 
tine, and the accounts of travelers who have 
visited that country, but I have never come 
across a suggestion that any one Christ healed 
or raised from the dead was still living. 

We must use our intelligence when we read 
the Gospels. According to those narratives, 
Christ healed the sick and raised the dead, but 
every one of these individuals for whom a mir- 
acle was performed finally went the way of all 


[77] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


flesh. According to Paul’s interpretation, as 
found in I Cor. 15, death is merely mortality 
putting on immortality, and corruption put- 
ting on incorruption. It is the laying aside of 
an animal body which is limited by weaknesses 
or racked by pains and tempted by the lusts of 
the flesh, for a spiritual body where limitations, 
pains and weaknesses, temptations and stains 
are left behind. The soul comes into its own. 
To the man who has nothing but an animal ex- 
istence, death is the great and final catastrophe. 
He has lived for the gratification of his emo- 
tions and senses, and the emotions and senses 
die. To the soul that has known Christ, death 
is not a catastrophe, it is the gateway to victory. 
When we are freed from the limitations of the 
sense perceptions and see life as it really is, 
then we realize that death is the transition from 
time to eternity and not the tragedy we con- 
sider it. The one who has gone is not the one 
to be pitied, it is only the ones left behind. It 
is true that hearts are burdened by the loss of 
loved ones, and life loses some of its richness 
and beauty when they are taken. Parents have 
aspirations for their children. There are pure 


[78] 


WHY DOES IT SOMETIMES FAIL TO HEAL? 


ties of human affection the breaking of which 
causes grief and heartache. We recognize and 
admit all this, but we are talking of death as 
a personal experience, and as such the man of 
faith recognizes it is not an evil but simply a 
transition of the soul from its material setting 
to a spiritual existence. 

To the human mind suffering is always evil. 
I believe that Christ by His constant effort to 
relieve it recognized how it marred human ex- 
istence. One of the hardest verses in the Bible 
to comprehend is the one in which we are told 
that “even Christ was made perfect by the 
things he suffered.”” The Son of God, He who 
was without sin or stain, had to be perfected 
by suffering! In the economy of God, beyond 
human experience and knowledge, it is prob- 
able that suffering has an important place. I 
cannot understand it or comprehend it. Many 
years ago an inspired interpreter struggled with 
this problem in the book of Job. That book is 
one of the grandest poems ever penned by the 
hand of man, but after the author is through, 
the same old problem remains, and man cannot 
see why he must suffer. On the basis of these 


[79] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


two general statements as to the place of death 
in the development of the soul in its transition 
from this earth into the spiritual world and the 
fact that there is reason to believe that suffer- 
ing has a real place in the economy of God, we 
are prepared to offer a solution to the problem 
we are considering. 

God knows human nature is not strong 
enough or wise enough to use discreetly a spir- 
itual formula which could always heal the body 
and restore health. Much suffering and sick- 
ness come from broken laws. There is no for- 
mula that can be used that will always heal 
the sick. Every sect, cult, or church that 
teaches and practices mental or faith healing 
can point to individuals who have been helped 
and others who have been cured, and yet if you 
investigate further you will find each of them 
has to admit failures. 

If faith does not always cure, I believe it al- 
ways helps the sick. Faith can be cultivated to 
the place where it soothes the nerves, quiets 
anxieties, and eases bodily suffering. The fear 
of death can be removed, and this in many 


[80] 


WHY DOES IT SOMETIMES FAIL TO HEAL? 


cases is the darkest shadow the sick have to 
face. 

I think we are justified in concluding that 
while faith sometimes works miracles, it always 
helps, and is worth all that it costs in the way 
of time, strength, and consecration. 


[81] 


Chapter V, 
The Blessings and Perils of Faith 


Healing 


ANY blessings spring from a belief in 

and practice of faith healing. The 

person who accepts this statement need not 

give up the use of medicine and dismiss the 

family physician. The object of this book, 

which has been repeated until it has become 

wearisome, is to point out some way to codrdi- 

nate faith and medicine so that humanity may 

enjoy the benefit of both these healing agen- 
cles. 

It has already been indicated in several 
places how much faith can do to relieve anx- 
iety, relax nervous strain, banish fear, control 
irritation and anger, reduce -pain, and stimu- 
late general health. Every one of these things 
eases burdens from tired shoulders, increases 
the joy of living, and brightens darkened lives. 
They are all blessings which enrich human ex- 


[82] 


THE BLESSINGS AND PERILS OF FAITH HEALING 


perience. These are some of the things which 
come to man when he applies religion to his 
physical health. Daily experience is filled with 
disappointments. Men fail to attain the goal 
they strive for; death comes to all, and broken 
home ties sadden many a life. Faith in God 
brings a light to humanity. A mother who 
has faith may mourn the death of her child 
as much as the mother who has no religious 
foundation in her life, but the grief of the 
woman of faith lacks the hopelessness and final- 
ity of the one who has no faith. The differ- 
ence in these two cases is not merely one of de- 
gree, it is also a difference in quality. There 
is a resiliency and recuperative power in the 
woman who has learned to apply her faith to 
her sorrows which the other lacks. If the ap- 
plication of faith to health could do no more 
than ease pain, quiet nerves, tone up the mind, 
improve the moral life, and give strength and 
hope to grief-laden hearts, it would be one of 
the most precious elements of religion man pos- 
sesses. But a little investigation and consid- 
eration proves it does much more. 

By applying faith to health men are able 

[83] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


to make religion more practical and vital. No 
matter how much any individual may dislike or 
deny the assertion, it is nevertheless true that 
man is inherently a religious being. The mass 
of men need a religion to help them live. Any- 
thing which improves his religious ideas, makes 
them applicable to life or shows how they are 
an integral part of existence is valuable to man. 
A knowledge of the part faith plays in improv- 
ing health does this. It teaches people to 
realize that life is a unity and religion is not 
an adjunct of existence, but rather an integral 
part of a well-rounded plan. It increases joy 
in the use of the opportunities God has given 
mankind. Religion is not a destroyer of pleas- 
ure. It is the door through which every one can 
enter into the best things life offers. In the 
second part of this book it will be shown how 
the practices and discipline advocated by the 
churches enable the Christian to attain the de- 
sired end. 

When a person realizes how much help can 
be received from reading the Bible devotionally, 
this old and much criticized book becomes prices 
less. Any one who so desires can leave the 


[84] 


THE BLESSINGS AND PERILS OF FAITH HEALING 


critical study of the Bible to scholars and in- 
vestigators; the value of its text for quieting 
nerves, healing aches and pains, is neither in- 
creased nor lessened by this research work; 
critical Bible study has an important place in 
the world of scholarship and the author is in 
sympathy with its attainments. But it has 
no place in applying the Bible’s spiritual mes- 
sage to hungry hearts and burdened minds. 

When an individual recognizes the possible 
usefulness of meditation and prayer as means 
of healing bodies and preventing illness, these 
spiritual exercises become more vital and the 
time they consume is not thought of as wasted, 
even by the very practical Christian. 

The greatest blessing of all comes from the 
combined influence of the things we have just 
outlined. When faith is recognized as having 
a vital place in humanity’s fight with sin, sick- 
ness, pain, and sorrow, the way is opened for 
spiritualizing the whole of life. The one thing 
needed by mankind to attain a joyous existence, 
is to learn how discord and friction can be ban- 
ished from the intelligence. Christ said, “Ye 
cannot serve God and mammon,”’ and yet thou- 


[85] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


sands of people are struggling hard to do this 
impossible thing. As long as religion is con- 
sidered a single department of life, dealing 
with morals and spiritual ideals, it lacks the 
comprehensive and compelling qualities neces- 
sary for making it the governing principle of 
all existence. When the mind realizes the im- 
portance of religion as a means of preventing 
sickness, healing disease and relieving pain, re- 
ligion takes on a new meaning, as its effects are’ 
of daily importance and universal appeal. 
When the significance of these facts has been 
assimilated by the mind, society can be trusted 
to solve its problems according to the law of 
God and all forms of prohibitory laws will be- 
come obsolete. Religion will come into its 
rightful place as the unifying principle on 
which all good, wholesome and _ profitable 
things depend. 

I wish it were possible to stop right here and 
close this subject with the valedictory just 
given on the blessings which come from faith 
healing. Unfortunately that is impossible as 
many dangers lurk in this fascinating subject. 

Instead of unifying life on a spiritual prin- 


[86] 


THE BLESSINGS AND PERILS OF FAITH HEALING 


ciple, it is possible to so misuse faith healing 
as to rob life of true spirituality and reduce 
religion to the dimensions of a patent medicine. 
When faith healing becomes merely a formula 
to relieve pain and cure illness the man who 
practices it is in serious danger. Faith healing 
in its true sense is the application of spiritual 
power to meet humanity’s needs. The spiritual 
power must be sought as a goal in itself. Its 
application to the body’s needs is a legitimate 
use of God’s gift for man’s well-being, but 
self-indulgence, sensuality, greed, and all sin 
must be banished from the heart to make this 
possible. 

Faith healing is such a fascinating subject it 
frequently warps an individual’s common sense 
and good judgment. When the author first be- 
came interested in this subject he was warned 
by many friends to look out or he would lose 
all sense of reality and become absorbed in 
some group of fanatics who practice faith heal- 
ing in an extreme way. This danger is a real 
one and the reader must be warned to keep his 
common sense, at all costs. God has given men 
sane minds to protect themselves against fakirs 


[87] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


and pseudo prophets. Common sense is like the 
mariner’s compass, it guides us over the track- 
less ocean of experience and if we follow its 
directions it finally leads us safely to the harbor 
we seek. With a full recognition of the danger 
there is no reason why a sane man should not 
investigate faith healing and finally discover 
the way to apply it to human needs. There 
was danger in studying yellow fever. Dr. Reed 
and several of the physicians connected with | 
his research work in Cuba died in their experi- 
ments, but the sacrifice of these lives has saved 
thousands of people from this scourge of the 
tropics. A brave man must recognize and dis- 
count these dangers and then go ahead trusting 
in God for guidance. 

Faith healing frequently destroys a person’s 
belief in medicine. This is a real danger, as 
contagious disease, unsanitary conditions and 
the health of children require obedience to cer- 
tain principles advocated by physicians. If 
any word in this book appears to any reader to 
be derogatory to the medical profession or to 
discredit the family physician, he has mistaken 
the author’s meaning. I have the highest re- 


[88] 


THE BLESSINGS AND PERILS OF FAITH HEALING 


spect for the attainments of physicians and wish 
them God’s blessing on their work. Men can 
use both medicine and faith for healing their 
bodies. 

The last danger Christians must be warned 
against is the possibility of becoming so ab- 
sorbed in the healing of their bodies as to ex- 
clude other valuable elements of life from their 
thoughts and activities. We have bodies, souls, 
minds, and social relationships. The well 
rounded and complete life gives due regard to 
all these different elements of existence. Do 
not become a one-sided fanatic. The Gospel 
of Christ and the spiritual atmosphere of the 
Bible recognizes and deals with all these ele- 
ments of life. Keep your balance amid the con- 
flicting interests which occupy your time and 
thought, and you are sure to find the fullness of 
life which is the best thing any one can possess. 


[89] 


Chapter VI 


A Practical Way of Applying 
Religion to Health 


EALTH is an unappreciated blessing un- 
til it is lost. 

A healthy body is the medium through which ~ 
pleasure reaches the emotions and sensations. 
When sickness or pain invades the body and 
disturbs the normal functioning of physical 
organs the possibilities of enjoying life are 
limited or destroyed. There is no use of speak- 
ing contemptuously of our bodies. We may 
consider them merely the home of our lower 
nature, but they are apt to cast a shadow over 
the soul and determine the individual’s mental 
attitude toward life. An overloaded stomach, 
a torpid liver, or any organ that fails to func- 
tion properly, reflects its disordered condition 
in mental depression, fretfulness or irritability. 

As health is the medium through which en- 
joyments come to the individual and also the 


[90] 


A PRACTICAL WAY OF APPLYING RELIGION 


channel through which his activities and as- 
pirations translate themselves into accomplish- 
ments, it is worth preservation, even if this 
requires both time and thought. ~~ 

There are a few fundamental rules which 
common sense supplies for dealing with physi- 
cal life which it is well to review. Every one 
ought to have a physician. Care should be 
taken to find one whose moral character and 
thorough preparation win confidence. The 
physician should be interviewed whenever pain 
is felt, as aches or pains are nature’s warning 
signals. Frequently the early consultation with 
a wise and well informed physician will safe- 
cuard the patient from future suffering and a 
breakdown. All physical ills are best treated 
in their incipiency. Sometimes a person’s aches 
and pains are unpleasant and hard to remove, 
but they may be of minor importance as far as 
general health is concerned. These disturbances 
may be as unpleasant as serious illness and fre- 
quently cause grievous anxiety. In the treat- 
ment of these cases mental and Christian 
Science, Psychotherapy, and the Christian 
churches have found a fruitful field for their 


[91] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


activities. The sufferers did suffer and they 
were helped, but frequently the worst phase of 
their suffering was in their minds and when 
fear and anxiety were removed the general 
health improved. 

It should be an established custom for every 
family and individual to interview their doctor 
whenever there is any marked change in their 
physical condition. The loss or rapid gain in 
weight, lack of ambition or loss of appetite, a 
constant feeling of depression, any disturbance 
in or lack of codrdination of any of the body’s 
functions should be referred to him. It is 
penny wise and pound foolish to economize on 
your doctor bills in the early days of a sickness 
only to multiply them at a later date. 

Having consulted a physician, do as he ad- 
vises. One of the strangest traits of human 
nature is to pay for advice and then think it 
smart to misinterpret, twist or distort it for the 
immediate enjoyment of some forbidden pleas- 
ure. The story is told of a man whose physi- 
cian told him he ought to limit his smoking to 
one cigaraday. Immediately this patient went 
to the store and bought a box of the largest 


[92] 


A PRACTICAL WAY OF APPLYING RELIGION 


and strongest cigars in stock. He kept the let- 
ter of the doctor’s advice but ignored its spirit. 
He hurt no one but himself. If he did not in- 
tend to follow the advice his physician gave, 
it would have been wiser to save his money. 
He salved his conscience by thinking he fol- 
lowed the doctor’s orders, but he was really 
doing just as he pleased. The individual goes 
to a doctor seeking health. If he lacks confi- 
dence in his physician’s character or has doubts 
about his medical knowledge, he should change 
physicians, as his mental attitude acts as a 
handicap in developing a healthy body which 
no medical man can overcome. 

Some occupations require living conditions 
that are harmful to physical health. Without 
going into details about sanitation, hygiene, 
and ventilation, common sense demands every 
one to recognize the importance of these things. 
A man’s selfish interests should make him an 
ardent advocate of wholesome living conditions 
for all people. 

A physician once said, “I like to have mem- 
bers of the New York Stock Exchange as pa- 
tients. They are the easiest cases to treat I 


[93] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


know of. All you have to do is to give them the 
once-over to see if there is any variation from 
the standing rule. The chances of this varia- 
tion are very small. ‘The prescription is simple: 
stop using all.forms of alcohol, take plenty of 
outdoor exercise and stay away from the office 
for a week or two. If this prescription is faith- 
fully followed, at the end of ten days or two 
weeks the grateful patient stops in to tell you 
what a wonderful physician you are.” These 
men are living under intense nervous pressure, 
which is aggravated by the stimulants their 
tired nerves crave. 

Clergymen also have to face living conditions 
that are sometimes disturbing to health. A city 
parish is apt to be a seven-day grind for ten 
months of the year. Preaching has an exhaust- 
ing effect on the nervous system. Constant 
demands for sympathy and advice wear on the 
mind. It is a case of “He saved others but 
himself he cannot save.” 

For these peculiar cases and others who have 
to live a sedentary and nerve exhausting exist- 
ence, there are certain helpful suggestions worth 
consideration. Make it a rule to take daily 


[94] 


A PRACTICAL WAY OF APPLYING RELIGION 


exercise. It may be “The daily-dozen” every 
morning and a walk to the railroad station, of- 
fice or wherever the destination may be. The 
object is to get the lungs filled with fresh air 
and the blood circulating. Take time to dress 
leisurely even if this requires getting up be- 
fore you have to. Eat your breakfast slowly. 
Eating under nervous tension is a mistake, and 
yet thousands of men gulp their breakfast with 
one eye on their watch and start the day under 
a nervous strain. This regimen for the morn- 
ing hours aims at stimulating the circulation, 
filling the lungs with fresh air, and starting the 
digestive process in a wholesome way. All 
these things conserve health and build up the 
body’s resistance to disease and sickness. 
Business men rise at the latest possible mo- 
ment, dress and eat breakfast under nervous 
strain. They hurry to the office, factory, or 
store so as to be on time. Their nerves have 
been jumping every minute since they left their 
beds. Their daily occupations are carried on 
at high pressure because of modern business 
methods. The telephone increases nervous 
strain by demanding snap judgments and im- 


[95] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


mediate answers to important questions. We 
have not the calm atmosphere of a former gen- 
eration, when business was carried on by cor- 
respondence, with periods of quietness between 
each transaction. The luncheon hour is fre- 
quently used for business conferences where 
difficult questions are discussed or disagreeable 
situations are faced. The food is once more 
taken into the body while the nerves are taut 
and this destroys the stomach’s ability to as- 
similate it. In the evening the tired nerves 
cause restlessness and irritation. Instead of re- 
laxing them so that nature can renew nervous 
tissue, relief is sought in emotional excitement. 
Jazz and dancing are indulged in or movies are 
patronized. As the emotions directly affect the 
nervous system the nerves have no rest. The 
nights are restless and insomnia is a common 
complaint. There may bea slight exaggeration 
in this analysis of the facts, but the main fea- 
tures are undeniably true. 

This method of life results in the loss of 
health, and with the loss of health comes a de- 
crease in man’s ability to work and a distaste 
for all of the day’s duties. Even the enjoy- 

[96] 


A PRACTICAL WAY OF APPLYING RELIGION 


ment of pleasures is impaired. Then the in- 
dividual commences to realize that physical 
well-being is basal to all enjoyment. Fre- 
quently at this period the sufferers come in 
touch with Mental Healing, New Thought, 
Mental Science, Divine Science, Christian 
Science, or some other school that advocates 
mental therapeutics. Many are helped but 
others are harmed by these schools. If the suf- 
fering is caused by a depleted nervous system, 
they will probably be benefited. If the run- 
down condition of the nerves is aggravated by 
or hides an actual physical weakness mere psy- 
chic treatment may cause irreparable injury. 
It is possible for the orthodox churches to meet 
this need in a real way, and safeguard both the 
truth of medical science and also that of faith 
healing. If you study the methods used by 
the various schools of mental healing you will 
discover they all require a certain amount of 
time. If the individual is willing to give some 
time each day to the cultivation of his spiritual 
life according to the dictates of whatever church 
may hold his allegiance, and apply the prin- 
ciples of his religion to his health, he can have 


[97] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


all the benefits of Christian Science or New 
Thought, plus the experience and advice of a 
trained physician. He can guard against both 
nervous disorders and physical ailments and 
improve his health in every way. 

In order to get the physical benefits of a re- 
ligious faith this faith must be applied by an 
intelligent effort to physical conditions. That 
is an axiom without which there can be no help. 
Time must be given in order to apply faith to 
health. Mental therapeutics have found that 
the early morning hours and the closing mo- 
ments of the day when its cares have been put 
aside are the best times for stimulating the sub- 
conscious mind and reaching the physical health 
through mental suggestion. The Christian can 
accept this program and weave it into his daily 
routine. 

We will now outline a plan and show how 
it can be carried out: 

Before rising have a copy of the Psalms, the 
New Testament or the Bible by your bed and 
read a portion of scripture, for example the 
121st Psalm. Do not read it hurriedly, but 
take time and think about it. 

[98] 


A PRACTICAL WAY OF APPLYING RELIGION 


“T will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.” Pause. 
Lift your eyes from your neighbor’s back yard, 
the apartment house next door or the trolley 
cars in the street. Think of the quietness of the 
hills and mountains. 


“From whence cometh my help.” I need help 
and that is what I am looking for. I can get 
itin my Bible. Where is it? 


“My help cometh from the Lord, who made 
heaven and earth.” ‘Thatistrue. I] ama child 
of my Heavenly Father and he who has had 
strength to create the whole world can help me. 


“He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he 
that keepeth thee will not slumber.” God is 
my help. I do not have to fret, fuss or worry 
about my work. 


“The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; 
he shall preserve thy soul.” That is a comfort- 
ing thought and I will carry it with me to-day. 


“The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy 
coming in from this time forth and even for 


[99] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


evermore.” I will carry that with me as I go 
out of the house, and I will think of it as I 
enter the office. 


If the 121st Psalm is read in this way and 
the thought is impressed upon the mind that 
God is a sure help and is with us to protect us 
from both the heat of the sun and the light of 
the moon, there is a quiet confidence developed 
which relaxes the nerves, refreshes the mind and 
prepares a mental attitude which banishes 
worry. These thoughts can be applied to any 
physical weakness or pain from which the in- 
dividual may be suffering. 

The effects of the scripture lesson can be 
greatly increased by a few moments of medi- 
tation and prayer. In the prayer the one who 
seeks divine help for the day should cast his 
cares and his worries on his Heavenly Father 
and leave them there. He must not take them 
up again and carry them to the office. Some- 
times the individual suffers from the dread of 
going to his place of business. It seems almost 
certain he will be met with a reprimand, an 
impossible problem, or a situation that is be- 


[100] 


A PRACTICAL WAY OF APPLYING RELIGION 


yond his control. Fear casts a shadow over 
the whole day. Such fears may be caused by 
some physical disorder or nervous disturbance 
needing medical attention, but as this pro- 
gram is worked out to supplement and not sup- 
plant the medical advice the physician is giving 
the danger is guarded against. The scripture 
lesson and prayer are used to control the mind 
and release the sufferer from all nerve afflictions 
and imaginary dangers, which are often as seri- 
ous as physical disorders. 

If possible, it is well to seek a few moments 
at noon for mental quietness. I know a promi- 
nent official of a great corporation whose days 
are spent under terrific nervous and mental 
pressure who spends a few moments right after 
his luncheon alone in his office. He leaves his 
club in time to let his mind and body relax be- 
fore he takes up the rush of the afternoon’s 
work. This habit is based on sound psychology 
and can be used as a source of spiritual refresh- 
ment. 

At night, just before retiring, turn to the 
23rd Psalm. Read it as the 121st Psalm was 


read in the morning, slowly and thoughtfully. 
[101] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” 
That is a thought worth dwelling on. The 
whole responsibility of life is not ours. After 
all our boasted powers we are but sheep and 
we have a shepherd to care for us. 


‘He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 
he leadeth me beside the still waters.’’ Let the 
mind rest in the green pastures with the quiet 
brook running through them. Refresh your — 
soul with the quietness of a pastoral dream. 


“He restoreth my soul.” Just stop for a mo- 
ment and think what it means to have the soul 
refreshed and restored, and the mind quieted, 
and the body healed by God’s ministrations. 


“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”’ No mat- 
ter how dark the shadows are, even if it is the 
shadow of death itself, they are only shadows 
and God 1s the light. 


Go through the whole Psalm in this way. 
Let its message sink into the soul and lay hold 
[102] 


A PRACTICAL WAY OF APPLYING RELIGION 


of the subconscious mind. Soak the mind and 
spirit with the thoughts of God’s healing and 
strengthening power. Take time after this 
reading for a quiet prayer. Make it a prayer 
of aspiration and communion rather than a 
prayer of petition. Turn out your light and lie 
down in the bed. Learn how to relax both 
your muscles, nerves and mind. Don’t try to 
2o}fo sleep.) just try to) relax. \)Relax: the 
muscles of the hands and the feet. Having 
relaxed the muscles, if you have been troubled 
with insomnia, you may find that the nerves 
are tense. The muscles and nerves of the face 
are drawn up in the effort to go to sleep. Just 
relax them. Don’t hold the eyes shut, just 
relax the eyelids. Let the mind rest on the 
green pastures and the still waters, and the 
peace of a life that is filled with a Father’s care 
and a Father’s love. Without trying to go to 
sleep you will rest. Even if sleep is slow in 
coming, rest. Sleep will come and in the 
morning you will be thoroughly refreshed and 
ready to take up the new day without fear, and 
with a renewed mind, a rebuilt body, and a 
strengthened soul. 


[103] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


It is not necessary to limit one’s self to the 
Psalms suggested. At the close of the book 
there is a list of scripture passages which may 
be helpful. Do not read a new passage each 
day. There is a calmness of mind which can 
only be gained by the monotony of repetition. 
After a period of time, it is well to make a 
change. Experience will show when the time 
has come to take a new scripture lesson. 

Such a regimen as this 1s sure to improve the 
physical life and rest the nerves. It is possible 
its effects may go much further. There are no 
grounds for guaranteeing it will always work 
miracles. It may sometimes, but common sense 
insists that this spiritual discipline be always 
used to supplement a physician’s advice and 
never as a substitute for it. As human happi- 
ness depends on physical health, isn’t it worth 
while to give the time and thought necessary 
for trying out a plan which has helped others 
and which is based upon sound principles and 
good common sense? 


[104] 


Chapter VII 


Scripture Lessons Which Assist in 
Healing Illness 


T is impossible to indicate in every case how 
scripture lessons should be used by the 
person seeking to improve his health by this 
means. <A few illustrations may be helpful 
but each individual must learn by experience 
how to apply the spiritual atmosphere of the 
Bible to his own needs. 

The passages of scripture treated in this chap- 
ter have been chosen with an idea of indicating 
how different kinds of Bible lessons can be ap- 
plied to an individual’s needs. With these 
illustrations in mind it will be easy to begin this 
practice and in time each person will learn to 
make his own selections and his own applica- 
tions. 

Two things should be emphasized: First, all 
the verses of the Bible do not apply either di- 


rectly or indirectly to the question of physical 
[105] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


health. The Bible deals with life and its many 
problems including social ethics, personal 
morality, sin and salvation, physical health and 
spiritual power. Be careful to choose the parts 
of the Bible which either directly or by a 
wholesome analogy can be applied to physical 
health. There is such a thing as an unwhole- 
some analogy and its use is sure to have a bad 
effect on both the conscious and subconscious 
mind. Second, do not think it necessary to 
take a new passage of scripture each day. The 
monotony of repetition has a helpful element 
which must be conserved. It is not the amount 
of the Bible we read which helps us but the 
amount of its spiritual atmosphere we assimi- 
late in our own mind and life. By rereading 
the same passage for a week or even a month 
an individual is often able to assimilate it bet- 
ter than if he took a new text each day. As 
each person’s mind, temperament and person- 
ality are different from all others, each indi- 
vidual must decide when it is advisable to 
change the spiritual diet he offers his mind, 
nerves, and body. 


With these thoughts in mind let us consider 
[106] 


LESSONS WHICH ASSIST IN HEALING ILLNESS 


several separate texts which may be used to 
help physical weakness. ‘These texts should 
be used on first awakening in the morning or 
just before retiring at night or in the noonday 
period of quietness. 


I 
Isaiah 40:31. ‘““They that wait on the Lord 


shall renew their strength.” I am waiting on 
the Lord. Pause a moment and get the mind 
and nerves quiet. 


“Shall renew their strength.” I am weak but 
I am in touch with infinite strength. The Cre- 
ator of the universe and the underlying power 
of the world is my Father. I can draw on this 
strength to refresh my mind and renew my 
nervous energy. Be quiet and let this thought 
grip your subconscious self. It has to soak into, 
your subconscious mind through your conscious- 
ness and this takes time and quietness. 


“They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” 
Let the mind and, if possible, the emotions sail 


[107] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


in the sunlit sky above the earth and its worries 
and cares. 


“They shall run and not be weary.” Think of 
the joy of-a vigorous youth in running a race. 
You can feel the blood thrill in your veins. 


“They shall walk and not faint.” The drudgery 
of life cannot break me. The monotony of 
toil is only a passing incident. I am a child of 
God. I have infinite reserve power. My 
humble task is part of an eternal and infinite 
purpose. Faintness is only due to my forget- 
ting these things. Meditate a few moments 
on these thoughts, then make a brief prayer for 
strength. 


II 


An individual who is suffering from some 
ailment which is the result of sin will find 
much help in Mark 2: 1-12. 

In reading this passage consider the suf- 
ferer’s mental state. He had a sick body and 
could not walk, but worse than that, he had a 


[108] 


LESSONS WHICH ASSIST IN HEALING ILLNESS 


sick mind. He realized his own sin. The first 
thing Christ did was to assure him of God’s 
forgiveness. We also can be sure of that. God 
loved the sons of men in spite of their sinful- 
ness and gave them a Saviour, His son, to blot 
out their iniquity and cleanse them from their 
sin. ‘The atoning mercy of Christ is great 
enough to assure us of salvation and it may heal 
a man of his illness. Christ healed this man’s 
body as well as his soul. Develop the idea of 
His healing power. Draw physical as well as 
spiritual help from this incident. God may 
bless the medicine the doctor has ordered and 
the nervous tension is sure to be relaxed and 
the patient can help his physician by this ap- 
plication of faith. The sick need health and 
faith can help ease the pains which now afflict 
them. When the mind is filled with Christ’s 
healing power, good results are sure to follow. 
I do not pretend to know how great the results 
may be. It may appear to the human mind to 
be a miracle but a man’s responsibility ends 
when he has done everything common sense dic- 
tates after adding a virile faith to his common 
sense. 


[109] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


The quiet mind and fearless courage of faith 
have immense therapeutic value and those are 
the things Christ gives His disciples. Always 
clinch the reading of the Bible with a prayer 
of application to your own personal needs. 
People are too prone to hold their religious faith 
in an impersonal way. ‘This impersonal ele- 
ment in their faith robs them of the help it 1s 
intended to give. With the thought of Christ’s 
healing power impressed on the mind and 
adapted to the peculiar needs of a man’s own 
case, he may gain his heart’s desire by the re- 
newing of his health. This cannot be accom- 
plished unless it is distinctly and intelligently 
sought for. 

The author of this book makes no claim of 
being a healer and, therefore, he will only sug- 
gest one more passage of the Bible of a healing 
nature to emphasize the point he is endeavor- 
ing to illustrate. 


Ill 


Consider Psalm 103: 1-5. 
In this scripture lesson the emphasis is placed 
on man’s need of blessing God for ai// His bene- 


[110] 


LESSONS WHICH ASSIST IN HEALING ILLNESS 


fits. Every day His mercies are renewed and 
people ignore or forget them. Cultivate a 
recognition of God’s eternal goodness. Think 
on the blessings of life instead of constantly 
repeating to yourself its burdens and difficulties. 


“He forgives all man’s iniquities.” No sin can 
keep the repentant sinner from these blessings. 
Repentance requires the former offender to 
cease sinning and as far as possible make resti- 
tution to those he has wronged. When these 
things have been done and the person who seeks 
God’s help in restoring or preserving his health 
must do these things, cost what they may, the 
mind can be assured of God’s help. The worry 
and nervous tension due to regrets are thus 
- wiped out and the mind is restful and healthy. 


“Who healeth all thy diseases.” Whatever the 
ailment may be which makes a person seek 
God’s help it is covered in this phrase. “All 
thy diseases” can be healed by the Author and 
Creator of life. 


“Who satisfieth thy desire with good things: 
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle.”’ 


[111] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


In poetic language these words show God’s 
satisfying and renewing power. The dissatis- 
fied mind can be taught to find peace and the 
tired nerves can be renewed. Dream on these 
gifts of God. Steady the mind by assimilating 
them. Make the mind control the body through 
the application of a spiritual faith. The body 
is sure to respond to this treatment, but in 
many, if not the great majority of cases, the 
help will only come after a period of time. It is 
impossible to revolutionize the mind and nerv- 
ous nature ina moment. This is only possible 
when the external stimulus is of a compelling 
power, as it was when Christ personally healed 
the sick. The average person must patiently 
practice this discipline until it has had time to 
become effective. 


In the Second Book the kind of religious 
faith and the discipline necessary for applying 
faith to health will be considered in detail. 
Probably enough has now been said to indicate 
how the Bible may be used by any one who de- 
sires to receive this help in his physical life. 


[112] 


LESSONS WHICH ASSIST IN HEALING ILLNESS 


SUGGESTED SCRIPTURES FOR THE MORNING 


Psalm 121. Luke 5: 29-32. 
Psalm 103: 1-5. Luke 11: 5-13. 
Psalm 42: 1-2, 5. Luke 15: 1-7. 
Psalm 46: 1-5. John 10:7-18. 
Psalm 62: 1-8. John 16: 12-14. 
Psalm 71: 1-5. Romans 12: 1-2. 
Psalm 84: 1-8. Romans 8: 31-39. 
Psalm 86: 1-8. Ephesians 6: 10-20. 
Psalm 95: 1-6. Philippians 3: 12-16. 
Isaiah 55: 1-13. Philippians 4: 8-9. 
Isaiah 40: 29-31. Philippians 4: 10-20. 
Isaiah 53: 1-13, 21-28. Colossians 3: 5-18. 
Mark 1:21-28. II Timothy 1: 7-14. 
Matthew 17: 14-21. I Timothy 6: 11-16. 
Mark 5: 25-35. Hebrews 11: 13-16. 
Mark 6:1-6. Hebrews 12: 1-3. 

I John 3: 1-3. 


SUGGESTED SCRIPTURES FOR THE EVENING 


Psalm 23. Matthew 5: 1-12. 
Psalm 90: 1-2. Matthew 6: 19-34. 
Psalm 91. Matthew 7: 7-12. 
Psalm 100: 1-5, Matthew 8: 14-17. 
Psalm 98: 1-4. Matthew 8:5-13. 
Psalm 107: 1-9. Matthew 11:25-30. 
Psalm 119: 105-112. John 4:21-24. 
Psalm 127: 1-2. John 14: 21-24. 
Psalm 130: 1-6. John 14:25-27. 
Psalm 136: 1-9. John 16:33. 
Psalm 139: 1-4. John 17: 20-26. 
Psalm 147:1-5. I Corinthians 13: 1-12. 
Mark 2: 1-12. I John 5: 13-15. 


Revelation 3: 20-21. 
[113] 















PAN a 


ery 
(Past. 
iyi 





Ww 
Guide 





Book Two: THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 
AND HOW TO CULTIVATE IT 


ey. 





Chapter I 


Christianity and Life 


ANY people have such an erroneous 

idea of Christianity that it is necessary 
to clarify their minds before they can under- 
stand how religion may be used to heal the 
body. This will be done by indicating some of 
the things Christianity has been associated with 
which are not its essential elements, and then 
show what it really is. 

The Gospel was never intended by Christ to 
be the propagator of prohibitory laws. The 
author is not opposed to the principle of pro- 
hibition as applied in the United States but con- 
siders it a social reform measure outside of and 
not directly affiliated with Christianity. The 
world can never be saved by lifting itself by 
its boot-straps, and that is what all reforms by 
legal enactment amount to. So many people 
have learned to think of the church as the ad- 

[117] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


vocate of prohibition and laws for Sabbath ob- 
servance, they never realize the extraneous na- 
ture of these measures. Each of them may be 
a good thing in itself but that is not the ques- 
tion at issue.” “They may be either good or bad 
as far as the point we are making is concerned. 

The Gospel was originally given to show 
people how they might come into contact with 
God through Christ. When men have estab- 
lished this contact certain inevitable results 
follow. They become conscious of their sin to 
a degree never before realized. With this con- 
sciousness of sin they learn they have a Saviour 
in Christ. The mental state which follows 
this realization, makes them hate sin and love 
righteousness. A mistaken enthusiasm creates 
a desire to overcome all forms of evil, such as 
intoxication, the drug habit, and the desecra- 
tion of the Sabbath, by the aid of the police 
power of the state. The reformers forget 
Christ’s method of intensively applying the 
spiritual atmosphere which comes from contact 
with God through social contacts, and not by 
using the power of the government. The loss 
which comes to Christianity from this mistake 


[118] 


CHRISTIANITY AND LIFE 


may seem negligible as it is intangible but it is 
none the less real. It dissociates the church 
from spirituality and clothes it in the uniform 
of the policeman. The only sort of Christianity 
that can affect physical health is the spiritual 
kind which Christ gave to man. 

Christianity is not a mere code of ethics. 
Morality is essential to a Christian life but it is 
the fruit of faith and not its roots. A man can 
be honest and truthful, generous and humane, 
he can support soup kitchens and social settle- 
ments, and never know the spiritual element of 
the Gospel, which removes anxiety, drives away 
fear, modifies pain, and heals the body. These 
bitter elements of life are only controlled by the 
spiritual mind. 

Christianity is not the mere attendance 
at the formal worship of achurch. The church- 
going habit can be used, and most successfully 
used, to create a spiritual mind, but it requires 
the individual to bring his mind and his heart 
to church as well as his body. We have 
churches filled with the bodies of the congrega- 
tion but absolutely deserted by their interest, 


attention, and sympathy. 
[119] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


Christ said to his disciples, “I came that they 
may have life and may have it abundantly” 
(John 10:10). His object was to increase 
the joy of living. He knew that “a man’s life 
consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). Wealth 
and material things do not assure any one of 
a rich and joyous existence. No one wants to 
speak disparagingly of money and the things 
it procures. It can buy shoes and clothes, pay. 
the butcher’s and grocer’s bill, furnish the one 
who possesses it with automobiles and houses, 
but there its usefulness ends. It is theoretically 
possible for man to have millions of dollars but 
also live an impoverished life. The abundant 
life is lived by a person who has enough of this 
world’s goods to meet the day’s requirements, 
a clear conscience, freedom from the domination 
of sin, friends, good health, and is at peace with 
all men. In other words, sin, sickness, loneli- 
ness, and strife are the destructive elements 
which ruin life, and money by itself cannot 
guarantee immunity from these ills. 

It is impossible in this place to enlarge on 


[120] 


CHRISTIANITY AND LIFE 


all these destructive forces. It is enough to 
point them out and then confine ourselves to 
the subject of this book. Sin and sickness de- 
stroy the value of money. Even Croesus could 
not\ bribe death and misfortune. Christ came 
to give man the abundant life which comes 
through the control of its destructive elements. 
The Gospel story is filled with illustrations 
of Christ’s saving sinners from their sin and 
healing physical sickness. We have already 
seen how sin and sickness are intimately related. 
The question now arises, how can men over- 
come these evils and find the joyous and abun- 
dant life which Christ desires every human be- 
ing to possess. 

The abundant life is possible only for those 
who have come into contact with the spiritual 
reality which underlies all existence and gives 
life its true meaning. This contact with 
spirituality is a hard thing to interpret as it is 
easy to drift into a vague terminology. The 
thing we seek is some definition of the trans- 
formation which accompanies all genuine con- 
versions. It is a transference of the center of 


[121] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


interest from material things to spiritual experi- 
ence.* It is talked about by all the mystics who 
have tried to enlighten men on the supreme im- 
portance of God and what an intimate knowl- 
edge of His presence and power can do for an 
ordinary man. It is the quality which made 
the Apostles superior to kings and emperors, 
philosophers and orators. It is the fusion of 
the finite mind with the infinite source of all 
being. Christ did not teach and heal, tell para 
bles, and die on the Cross merely to give man- 
kind ability to live a life of petty morality and 
mediocre abilities. He lived and died to give 
mankind the transforming power of God—a 
dynamic, stimulating, vivifying, and tumultu- 
ous experience. If we confine the power of 
God and the regenerating work of Christ by a 
mechanical routine and stereotyped ideas, we 
rob it of its virility, and it becomes emaciated 
and innocuous. It does little because it has to 
work through feeble channels and with long- 
established habits. To gain the healing power 
of Christ men have to broaden their concep- 


* Thomas Masson in “Why I am a Spiritual Vagabond” 
in his chapter on “Conversion,” pp. 227-261, gives some 
very helpful thoughts on this subject. 


[122] 


CHRISTIANITY AND LIFE 


tions of God and break down the barriers of 
custom. It is a vital and new experience and 
must have a chance to work in a clear field. 
There can be no question but some people 
find this mystical element of the Gospel hard 
to understand and positively disagreeable. 
This fact must be frankly admitted and hon- 
estly faced. Investigation shows that practical 
minded and simple souled people are not as 
frequently afflicted with nervous troubles as 
those who are capable of spiritual ecstasies. 
The Gospel is applicable to all sorts of human 
nature, and those whose temperaments demand 
spiritual channels for the transforming of their 
surplus nervous and emotional energy into a 
constructive force find it here. The phlegmatic 
and practical minded people may not have to 
follow them in all details but they can recog- 
nize the value of this element of Christianity. 
The religious services and the spiritual exer- 
cises the churches recommend are not, as they 
are often considered to be, an end in themselves 
or a waste of time. The experience of many 
generations has taught the students of religion 
to recognize the value of certain practices which 


[123] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


we will consider in the closing chapters of this 
book which have practical as well as spiritual 
value. It is impossible to receive the benefits 
of Christianity unless the seeker for truth is 
willing to invest his time in the cultivation of 
faith. This investment of time, if it is wisely 
made, is sure to pay big dividends. ‘The divi- 
dends are of a spiritual nature and, therefore, 
the more easily overlooked. They lead to the 
freeing of the soul from the control of evil pas- 
sions. They have a direct effect on the nerves 
and in that way improve physical health. They 
surround the individual with friends and sym- 
pathy and if they were applied to economic and 
social questions they would eliminate strikes 
and lockouts. They are the only foundation 
which gives any hope for settling international 
disputes on a peaceful basis. 

“God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness but 
of power and love and discipline” (JI Tim. 
1:7). These words define the mental back- 
ground of a real Christianity. Fearfulness is 
indigenous to human nature. Humanity is so 
weak and has to contend with such great spir- 
itual and moral forces every day that fear in 


[124] 


CHRISTIANITY AND LIFE 


some form is a universal trait of mind. Christ 
came to teach the sons of men that they were 
the children of God. They are not alone in 
their contest with evil. They have infinite spir- 
itual powers to draw on. Love is the dynamic 
of God, and its effects are far reaching, The 
Christian life is a disciplined one because only 
through discipline can liberty escape license 
and the thought-life remain sound. Undisci- 
plined thought is filled with vagaries and un- 
digested facts while the disciplined mind thinks 
through a problem step by step until it reaches 
the right conclusion. 

The purpose of this chapter is to emphasize 
the mystical element of Christianity. The 
Gospel has this mystical element and whenever 
it has been ignored or forgotten the Gospel loses 
power. Hard-headed and practical people 
often dislike anything which savors of mysti- 
cism. They want simple facts which can be 
easily understood and carefully analyzed. A 
religion which has no element of mysticism is 
as dead as a fossil. It may have once lived, 
but life left it long before it reached its present 
condition. It is like the fossil in that it shows 


[125] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


it once had life. The Gospel deals with God, 
a Saviour who died for men, the way man can 
win in his fight against sin and sickness, and im- 
mortality. If these are eternal truths they are 
as yet beyond the power of human scales, mi- 
croscopes, or telescopes. They partake of spir- 
itual qualities beyond material analysis. They 
can be known and felt as something fundamen- 
tal to life but they contain elements beyond 
man’s experience. 

The spiritual experience we have tried to 
describe does not seem to depend on any par- 
ticular theology. Thomas a Kempis and Father 
Lawrence had it and they were devout Roman 
Catholics. The Society of Friends have had 
many notable mystics in their fellowship. 
Wesley had it and was a Methodist. Every 
church has enrolled among its membership men 
and women who have found the spiritual mean- 
ing of life in an experience of God which makes 
them mystics. Thomas Masson in “Why I 
am a Spiritual Vagabond” claims to have had 
it outside of the church. This is possible. I 
cannot be arbitrary in such a serious matter, 
and I believe God may speak to some men 


[126] 


CHRISTIANITY AND LIFE 


through extraordinary channels, such as the 
stars, philosophy, the beauty of a woodland 
scene, a marvelous moonlit lake, or the tossing 
billows of the sea. It is only necessary to hear 
His voice and find Him. While admitting this 
possibility I believe with all my mind and 
heart that the surest way to find God and the 
spiritual meaning of life is through Jesus 
Christ. It does not matter which church or 
theology makes Christ known to the seeker as 
long as He is found and His message is heard. 

We have now come to the place where we 
must understand what is meant when we speak 
of faith. 


[127] 


Chapter II 


The Importance of Faith 


ROM time to time as we have considered 

the relations between religion and health 

we have had to speak of faith. The time has 

now come to define what is meant by faith and 

indicate how it can directly affect physical 
health as well as the moral and spiritual life. 

Faith is the channel through which religion 
comes into contact with daily life and all its 
various problems and, therefore, a clear under- 
standing of what faith is is essential before its 
importance in healing the body can be under- 
stood. 

A religion capable of holding men in alle- 
giance must be able to impart a strength to its 
adherents which cannot be attained in any other 
way, and thus give them something of more 
value than the world gives. If it fails to meet 
this test, its failure is fatal, as no one of intelli- 
gence will accept the obligations a religion 


[128] 


THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH 


places on his activities and time unless he re- 
ceives an adequate return for the sacrifices he 
makes. The strength religion gives acts through 
and with the faith which is itself the product 
of religion. 

The dictionary gives us very little help in 
understanding what faith is and the part it 
plays in life, as the definitions it contains miss 
the mystical element of faith, wherein its power 
lies. 

Theology obscures rather than clarifies the 
place faith holds in life to all but theologians. 
The effort will be made in this chapter to in- 
terpret faith in terms of life which reach be- 
yond the definitions of the dictionary and are 
more vital to the average person than the 
formal statements of theology. 

Faith is the acceptance of ideals which have 
their foundation in past experience but lead to 
new conceptions of life and its meaning. It 
must be founded on past experience as no man 
has anything else to build on. If life was en- 
tirely satisfactory and joyous there would be no 
incentive or impulse to reach out in an effort 
to grasp something more. Music and dancing, 


[129] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


eating and drinking, love-making, and political 
power all in the end prove unsatisfactory. Be- 
hind the activities and enjoyment of life lie 
heartache and disappointment, sickness and 
death. These misfortunes are not exceptional 
incidents that visit the few but they are the 
universal experience of mankind. This unsatis- 
factory element in life has driven thoughtful 
minds to seek some solution of the enigma they 
have to face. They see other lives which seem 
to have found a solution. The men who have 
found quietness instead of fretting and peace 
in place of anxiety are religious men. Life 
with its many problems, tragedies, and longings 
has forced mankind to seek religion. It has of 
necessity substituted faith for knowledge and 
developed new conceptions as to what life is 
and what it means. Religion, which is the ma- 
terialization of faith, was born out of human- 
ity’s needs. It was founded on past experience 
but it endeavors to solve the problem of exist- 
ence according to ideals which introduce new 
conceptions of life and duty. 

Faith creates a change in man’s conceptions 
of values. The valuable things to the natural 


[130] 


THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH 


man are food, and clothes, a home and family. 
He is interested in those things that conserve 
life and propagate the race. His own position 
among his fellows and the prestige and honor 
he enjoys appeal to him. Faith changes these 
interests. ‘Things which were once precious be- 
come negligible, and neglected things become 
important. Food and clothes, houses and 
money, honor and power, are still recognized 
as having a value but the most important ele- 
ment in life is found in unseen spiritual things 
such as ideals, aspirations, and character. 
These are the things which give permanent sat- 
isfaction, control the bestial side of human na- 
ture, and bring comfort in sickness and hope in 
the hour of death, Faith transfers the supreme 
interest of the mind from material satisfactions 
to spiritual attainments. It is an appreciation 
of the ultimate reality and importance of the 
spiritual side of life as contrasted with man’s 
former subjection to the material elements of 
his existence. 

Faith is the courageous acceptance of the un- 
known based on man’s experience with the 
known. We know from everyday experience 


[131] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


that life is impermanent, stained with sin, 
marred by ill health, and limited by death. 
We have seen lives purified and strengthened, 
comforted and made confident through faith. 
Men raise themselves out of their weakness and 
fear, not by pulling on their boot-straps, but 
by laying hold of faith. There is nothing else 
adequate to their need. Without faith all man 
possesses is a few short years beginning in a 
cradle and ending in a grave. These years are 
filled with suffering, disappointment, sickness, 
tears, failures, and sin. A solution of the prob- 
lem must be found or the human mind will fail. 
Faith is the solution of a brave heart. It ac- 
cepts life as it is, but sees in it more than a few 
years of waste, wreck, and misunderstanding. 
Faith says life is vital and some day the prob- 
lems will be solved and we shall understand 
the purpose and plan of a loving God and 
Father which underlies and controls human af- 
fairs. 

Faith is a pathway which leads men from 
brute force and selfishness to ethics, morality, 
and social service. When man was little better 
than a brute living in the caves of Europe he 


[132] 


THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH 


had ideals. He expressed them in his art which 
students commend as being of a fine quality. 
These primitive men of ideals sought something 
beyond the realm of animal existence. They 
expressed this longing in religion. They culti- 
vated faith in a fetish, an altar, a priest, or a 
spirit. Their religion was crude at first but it 
was a groping for spiritual understanding and 
the schoolroom of faith. Out of religion puri- 
fied and ennobled came the ideas of morality, 
self-mastery, justice, and care of the weak, 
which underlie civilization. It does not matter 
whether you are a believer in faith or not, 
every person living in America is the inheritor 
of untold blessings from the labors of the ideal- 
ists who followed faith through long gone ages. 
Modern civilization with its morality, courts, 
ideals, and social service is the result of their 
gropings after nobler and better things. The 
individuals who lived for their own enjoyment 
and merely sought their own pleasures, never 
gave the world a thing to help it. 

Faith is the means by which men draw help 
from their subliminal nature. Modern psy- 
chology recognizes that there exists in the 


[133] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


human mind a reservoir of strength which 1s 
often neglected. This seat of power is called 
the subconscious mind. Man can draw on his 
subconscious mind for a power that strengthens 
character, benefits health, and increases energy. 
The best way to reach this undercurrent of 
psychic strength is through faith. When the 
individual codrdinates his life and activities, 
his interests and ambitions on some worthy out- 
let and centralizes his efforts through faith he 
gains a power which nothing else gives. Faith 
in some form is always present when illness is 
cured by psychic or spiritual means. It is the 
channel through which religion reaches the 
mind and through the mind affects the body. 
It is a spiritual agent which may be cultivated 
for the purpose of healing disease and improv- 
ing health. Faith overcomes nervousness when 
it is applied to the things which irritate the 
nerves. It increases physical vigor by stimu- 
lating psychic forces, which if they are neg- 
lected limit a man’s strength. It is hard to 
limit the power of faith as it has effects as yet 
only partially appreciated and understood. 
Scientists have preoccupied the intellectual 


[134] 


THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH 


world with their wonderful discoveries about 
material things and the way they may be used 
for the benefit of humanity. The interest in 
material things, such as the value of drugs for 
healing the body and the possibilities of elec- 
tricity, has led many people to ignore the im- 
portance of psychic power. The practices of 
charlatans and the unreasonable claims of en- 
thusiasts have caused sensible people to look 
with suspicion on the efforts to assist bodily 
health through the cultivation of the mind and 
by religious faith, ‘This prejudice robs men 
of one of the greatest therapeutic agencies at 
their disposal. By faith they can gain this 
power. SNe 

Faith is the application of cosmic power to 
individual needs. Underneath all natural 
phenomena and pervading the universe is an 
energy that makes for righteousness and ideal- 
ism which is not of men. Many men of intelli- 
gence believe there is a spiritual power at work 
in the universe more potent than any material 
force the human mind has yet discovered. The 
physicist has reduced all matter to motion. 
Motion is a form of spirit. Man reaches this 


[135] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


ultimate reality and force through faith. We 
have not the knowledge or skill to enter a labo- 
ratory and work out the technical problems, but 
by faith the mind can reach below the material 
manifestations the hands touch and the eyes 
see, and draw help for every human need. | 
believe that this is an explanation worthy of 
serious consideration of the spiritual power 
that individuals require for daily victory over 
every sickness and moral weakness. Men feeble 
in their physical strength have been able to 
withstand all the force an antagonistic society 
could exert and by their spiritual energies mold 
it on new lines. It is faith which lays hold of 
this power and puts it to work in human life. 
Christ applied this spiritual power to the needs 
of the sick and afflicted of His own day. By 
faith He drew on not only the psychic force of 
the human mind but also on the cosmic force 
which underlies all existence. The cosmic 
force we are speaking about is what a Christian 
calls “the power of God.” ‘This power of God 
supplements and invigorates the healing ele- 
ments of the mind and adds a new element to 


[136] 


THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH 


the healing ministry of the Gospel which mind 
cures lack. 

We have now defined what we mean by 
faith in terms of life, power, and attainment. 
We have not used any of the well-worn phrases 
of theology. In closing we must add the key- 
stone and also the foundation to the arch we 
have been striving to build to lead men out of 
indifference into a fuller appreciation of what 
faith is and does. What does faith mean to a 
Christian? The answer is summed up in the 
person and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. Of 
all men who ever lived on earth He was the 
supreme example of what faith can do in a 
human life. He not only illustrates the power 
of faith but He also stimulates other minds to 
desire it. Under all, in all, and above all, by 
His divine nature He not only illustrates and 
stimulates but He creates faith. Any one who 
comes into contact with the personality re- 
vealed in the Gospels has his spiritual nature 
re-created, and out of vagueness, doubts, and 
uncertainties comes a mind founded on faith 
and directed and molded by a living Saviour. 


[137] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


Paul urged the church at Colosse to walk in 
Him, rooted and builded up. If that means 
anything it means the cultivation of intimate, 
personal contact with the Christ. A disciple’s 
spiritual nature becomes weak, lukewarm, and 
impotent when he is indifferent to or separated 
from his master. To be established in the faith 
and to enjoy its full power he must cultivate 
this intimate relationship with Christ. It must 
be admitted at once that many members of the 
church fail to enjoy the confidence, spiritual en- 
ergy, and the means of attainment which come 
from faith because they fail to pay the price nec- 
essary for gaining these things. This faith we 
are speaking about is a mighty power and a 
valuable quality of mind. It does things, re- 
moves anxieties and fears, broadens life, 
deepens aspirations and changes the whole of 
existence. It is not only a valuable asset but 
it costs a great deal. To attain its full power it 
requires the investment of time, strength, clear 
thinking, and even money. You cannot have 
the blessings of faith unless you are willing 
to put forth the effort required for its attain- 
ment. 


[138] 


THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH 


Modern life with its many attractions and 
thousand and one interests come between us 
and the blessings which come from faith. 

The closing chapters will define the discipline 
and daily practices necessary to develop faith 
and give to the person who wants it a spiritual 
understanding of life which is able to heal sick- 
ness and overcome sin. 


[139] 


Chapter III 


Bible Study and Spiritual Strength 


HE Bible seems like an outgrown book to 
many people who have merely a superfi- 
cial knowledge of Christ’s life, parables and 
miracles. They have a vague idea of Moses and 
the Mosaic law. Their knowledge of the 
prophets is indefinite and, therefore, of no 
value. What they know of the Bible seems 
disassociated from their own lives, the problems 
they have to face and the temptations which 
assail them. 

The Bible is the greatest book ever written 
and when it is understood brings help to in- 
dividuals which no other book can. 

It has already been shown how Bible study 
may be used on lines suggested by modern psy- 
chology, faith healing and mental therapeutics, 
to stimulate the mind, strengthen the nerves, 
and heal the body. Certain passages have been 

[140] 


BIBLE STUDY AND SPIRITUAL STRENGTH 


indicated which can be used for these purposes. 
The object of Bible study should be more fun- 
damental to life than merely a healing agency. 

We have just been considering the impor- 
tance of developing a spiritual mind and a con- 
sciousness of God which gives to the one who 
possesses it the ability to overcome sin, think of 
life in terms of spirituality rather than in the 
terms of material existence, and develops re- 
sources in the personality able to cope with all 
difficult questions, such as physical weakness or 
ill health. This spiritual power works through 
faith and one of the means man has at his dis- 
posal for cultivating faith is found in the Bible. 
The Bible contains accounts of great spiritual 
geniuses, including their weaknesses and fail- 
ings but showing how they won the victory 
through God’s help. It has many passages 
which are hard to understand or interpret. 
These difficulties add to its stimulating quality, 
for if it was all as simple and easy to under- 
stand as the A, B, C’s it would not offer an in- 
centive to continued study and investigation. 
No matter how great a man’s scholarship may 
be the Bible is always ahead of his attainments, 


[141] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE — 


urging him to renew his investigations and solve 
its problems. It is far ahead of all human at- 
tainments in spiritual thought and moral life. 
Its goals seem to keep pace with the indivi- 
dual’s attainments, and urge him on to renewed 
efforts. 

The student of the Bible should realize that 
there are two kinds of Bible study, the critical 
and the devotional. The critical study of the 
Bible is important but it does not affect health » 
or bequeath spiritual power. It is an investiga- 
tion of the text to satisfy the individual’s mind 
as to its truth and spiritual value. Many peo- 
ple cannot accept the Bible on faith. They 
have to investigate for themselves how, when, 
and where it was written. They want to know 
who the author was, and what sort of a life he 
lived, and the kind of influence he had in his 
own day. These are legitimate questions which 
every student has a right to answer to the best 
of his ability. The investigator must be careful 
to take all the facts into consideration and mas- 
ter all the implications which grow out of them. 
Too many people have been satisfied with a par- 
tial study of the Bible and its place in human 

[142] 


BIBLE STUDY AND SPIRITUAL STRENGTH 


life. They have reached negative conclusions 
because they have overlooked important prem- 
ises which should lead to positive convictions. 
Critical Bible study has one serious limitation, 
it does not create spiritual ideals or develop a 
devotional life; it only lays a foundation. 
Many students have been so interested in the 
analysis of the gospel story, and their efforts 
to trace it back to its original sources, that they 
fail to realize that this story, as we now have 
it in the four gospels, is the most powerful 
agent man possesses for creating moral char- 
acter, spiritual ideals, and better health. These 
students are like the builders of a church who 
spent all their substance, time, and strength in 
laying a foundation. When the foundation 
was finished their resources were exhausted. 
For years the foundation remained as a monu- 
ment to their incompleted efforts. Another 
generation arose and on this foundation built a 
house of God which inspired many to seek and 
follow Christ as their Saviour. Both of these 
groups played an important part in building 
the church, but the work of those who laid the 
foundation bore no fruit until others arose to 


[143] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


complete their task. The spiritual life requires 
men to add the devotional use of the Bible to 
their critical study of its contents. That com- 
bination is irresistible. 

The devotional study of the Bible is the con- 
structive use of the Bible by an individual who 
seeks inspiration and strength. Those who 
enjoy the blessings of this study are not igno- 
rant or unintelligent people. They do not feel 
the need some students do for personal investi- 
gation but accept the Bible on the authority of 
their mother, Sunday school teacher, or pastor. 
Consciously or unconsciously they accept it be- 
cause of the effect it has had on other lives and 
the help they receive from it. While some 
people sneer at this method of accepting the 
Bible their sneers are unjustified. It is a well 
established scientific principle that man may use 
forces he does not fully understand as long as 
he is guided in this use by the results they pro- 
duce. No scientist knows just what electricity 
is. He knows how it can be produced and how 
it can be applied to human needs. On this ex- 
perimental knowledge the telephone, electric 
lighting system and trolley cars have been de- 

[144] 


BIBLE STUDY AND SPIRITUAL STRENGTH 


veloped. People who accept the devotional 
study of the Bible are using it just as scientists 
use electricity. They are applying it to human 
needs because for generations it has always pro- 
duced certain results in life when thus applied. 

The devotional study of the Bible means a 
good deal more than a cursory reading of a por- 
tion of the scripture at specific times. The one 
who wants to get spiritual and physical 
help from this book should sit down with a 
quiet mind and ask himself such questions as 
these: 


(a) What spiritual and physical help can I get 
from the reading of this passage of scripture? 


(b) How can I create in my mind and charac- 
ter those things the Bible exalts and overcome 
those weaknesses it warns against? 


(c) Am I getting the best out of life according 
to God’s ideals as revealed in this book? 


With these thoughts in mind read a passage 
in the Gospels, one of the devotional Psalms, or 


[145] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


a portion of the Epistles. The reader must 
remember that the Bible deals with individual 
life, social conditions, and various elements of 
existence besides physical health. The portion 
chosen for dny one day may not have a direct 
influence on physical conditions, as it may deal 
with some other subject which is necessary for 
a well-rounded and wholesome life. 

How is it possible for this reading of the 
Bible to benefit health? The only way religion 
can reach the body and its ailments is through 
the mind. The thoughts of the Bible stimulate 
the mind, exalt the ideals, create faith, and 
banish anxiety. All these things have a bene- 
ficial effect on physical conditions. The Bible 
is filled with God’s love, God’s care of His 
people, God’s purpose in life, and God’s victory 
over death. When used in the right way these 
truths bring strength, confidence, hope, and 
good cheer into the mind to prepare it for the 
day’s work and to lift the body out of its aches 
and pains. If devotional Bible reading is con- 
stantly practiced it is sure to have an accumula- 
tive effect that is beneficial to the reader’s mind 
and nerves. 


[146] 


BIBLE STUDY AND SPIRITUAL STRENGTH 


This study of the scriptures can be used as a 
means of removing dangerous and harmful 
complexes from the subconscious mind. These 
complexes are hard for a medical man to dis- 
cover and difficult for him to treat. Every one 
can treat them by a proper use of the Bible. 
The first moments of consciousness on awaken- 
ing and the time that just precedes falling 
asleep, give the best opportunities for reaching 
and directing the subconscious mind. If these 
occasions which occur daily are used for feed- 
ing the subconscious mind on the confidence, 
joy, strength, and faith of the Bible story, the 
old complexes of fear, dread, sin, and inferior- 
ity will be overcome and the shadows they 
cast on physical and nervous health will be 
removed. 

The object of reading the Bible on awaken- 
ing in the morning and just before retiring is 
to reach the subconscious mind and stimulate 
it by the spirit and atmosphere of the scriptures. 
It is a practice frequently recommended by mys- 
tics and spiritual geniuses of past ages which 
has received a new meaning and importance 
from the discoveries of modern psychology. 


[147] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


The importance of this Bible reading has been 
developed in Book I, chapters VI and VU, and 
again referred to in the preceding paragraph. 
Devotional Bible study should not be confined 
to an effort to'stimulate the subconscious mind. 
It should also be used to direct and control the 
conscious mind. For this purpose it is necessary 
to study the Bible devotionally when the mind 
is alert and functioning in all its powers. The 
best results in developing character and heal- — 
ing physical disorders can only be obtained 
when these two different objects of devotional 
Bible study are clearly understood and both 
methods are practiced with perseverance and in- 
telligence. 

The mind is a hard thing to control. Christ 
once said, “From within, out of the heart of 
men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, 
murders, adulteries, covetousness, wickedness, 
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, 
foolishness: all these evil things proceed from 
within and defile the man.” Immorality, in- 
temperance and other forms of sin are the direct 
cause of ill health. The human imaginations 
are wayward and rebellious. By filling the 

[148] 


BIBLE STUDY AND SPIRITUAL STRENGTH 


mind with pure thoughts, spiritual aspirations, 
and an appreciation of God’s constant help it is 
cleansed and kept wholesome. Sin is ban- 
ished and thereby health is improved. It is not 
sufficient to stop an evil practice. Something 
must take its place. Christ once told a parable 
in which He showed no mind or life could re- 
main a vacuum. The man He told about had 
banished an unclean spirit from his life. The 
spirit wandered disconsolate and desolate with- 
out a dwelling place. He returned to the man 
from whom he had been sent forth. He found 
this man’s life cleansed but empty. It had 
not been filled with pure thoughts, useful activ- 
ities, and wholesome interests. The old spirit 
came back with seven others and the man dis- 
covered with bitter regret that instead of having 
improved his condition his last state was worse 
than the first. 

People still try to live with their minds and 
souls a spiritual vacuum. They bitterly regret 
their failures and revile God for not coming 
to their help. God comes to their help just as 
much as they will let Him. When they have 
driven out the evil spirit they must stimulate 


[149] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


a wholesome thought-life by bringing in other 
things which will occupy their minds, interests, 
and aspirations. Bible reading does this. It 
fills the life so that there is no room for the 
evil spirit to occupy. The harmful complexes 
and the impure thoughts that once held sway 
can no longer find a lodging. The space they 
once tenanted has been preémpted by another 
set of interests and another sort of activities. 
The things that were detrimental to the physi- 
cal life have been removed and wholesome 
thought processes have taken their place. 


[150] 


Chapter IV 


Prayer 


HE function of prayer is totally misun- 
derstood by the majority of people. 
Prayer is not an Aladdin’s lamp which can be 
rubbed to gratify every human wish. It is not 
a spiritual spigot which can be turned on and 
off at the pleasure of an individual to increase 
the flow of spiritual power even as water is 
drawn. 

Prayer is the door by which a person enters 
the spiritual life and when it is rightly under- 
stood it leads an individual to an energy which 
acts as a dynamo for the development of spirit- 
ual power. To be effective the prayer life has 
to be cultivated and the mind has to learn how 
to use it by constant practice. At the present 
time few people realize the possibilities open to 
them through the development of a prayer life. 
Many have given up the habit entirely, while 
others limit their prayers to the repetition of | 


[151] 


‘FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


some memorized form. ‘This routine exercise 
while it has elements of spiritual value stunts 
the soul and closes the door to the inflow of 
the spiritual energy which Christ intended His 
disciples to have and urged them to seek. 
Christians believe Christ was without sin 
and the Son of God and yet He found it profit- 
able to spend much time in prayer! He prayed 
early in the morning (Mark 1:25) and late 
at night (Mark 14:32-42). He knew His - 
disciples needed to cultivate this habit in order 
to obtain spiritual strength to overcome their 
temptations and do the work he committed to 
their care (Matt. 6: 5-15; Mark 13: 33-373 
Luke 18: 1-8). It is logical to conclude Christ 
knew of a current of spiritual energy open to 
mankind which could be tapped by prayer. 
He Himself drew on this force to give Him 
strength and tried in every way to show His 
disciples how they could find it. In spite of 
the apostles’ weakness and human nature, for 
they were both weak and human, they were able 
to revolutionize the world. They received 
strength from some source outside of them- 
selves. This power came to them, in a large 


[152] 


PRAYER 


measure, through prayer. We have been con- 
sidering the mystical element of Christianity 
and indicated how it is essential before any one 
can gain spiritual help in healing illness. This 
mystical element does not appeal to all people. 
An appreciation of the blessings it imparts can 
only be won by developing the prayer life. 

Real prayer is a recognition of man’s de- 
pendence on and a cultivation of right relations 
with his Heavenly Father. While this rela- 
tionship may be formally recognized by the 
thoughtless repetition of memorized phrases it 
can only be fully attained by training the mind 
to appreciate the divine presence. One of the 
easiest ways to do this is to cultivate, by con- 
tinued effort, the habit of praying. 

Prayer should not be a mere presentation of 
the individual’s own desires, but rather the 
opening of the intellect and aspirations, the pur- 
poses and daily conduct to divine control. This 
habit when it has been developed affects all 
human relationships. It gives a man strength 
to overcome his lower nature and sensual de- 
sires and thus conquers sin. We have already 
seen how immorality and lasciviousness, intem- 


[153] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


perance in eating and drinking, are the cause of 
many diseases. If we could eradicate sin much 
sickness would be eliminated. Prayer leads to 
the overcoming of sin. ‘Therefore it assists in 
developing health. 

Through prayer man has a direct connection 
with his subconscious mind. The influences of 
prayer on the subconscious mind should be con- 
sidered as a by-product. But as in many 
modern industries, the by-products in this case 
have a distinct and independent value. The 
object of prayer is contact with God and an ef- 
fort to gain divine help for human needs. The 
by-product is a reflex on the body through the 
subconscious mind. The one truth does not ex- 
clude the other, but making spasmodic efforts 
to stimulate health through the subconscious 
mind is like trying to walk on one leg. Some 
progress may result, but it is a stumbling affair 
at best. 

The quiet of the early morning and late hours 
of the night are the best periods of the day for 
prayer as these are the times when the subcon- 
scious mind is most easily reached. Prayer 
should be used in connection with the reading 


[154] 


PRAYER 


of the Bible. By connecting these two methods 
of cultivating a spiritual mind and atmosphere, 
they reénforce and increase the effectiveness of 
each other. 

If a real prayer life has been developed and 
time is taken for communion with God, the de- 
velopment of spiritual aspirations, and the con- 
secration of ambitions to exalted ideals, these 
things will be impressed on the subconscious 
mind and work themselves back into conduct 
and character. Here is a by-product worth 
saving. The main object has been to bring 
the soul into contact with God and in the quiet- 
ness of His presence gain a spiritual outlook 
on life. This spiritual atmosphere reflects it- 
self in the character and also in the body with 
improved health. Coué has applied this prin- 
ciple in his recommendation to repeat until it is 
impressed upon the subconscious mind his fa- 
mous dictum, “Day by day in every way I am 
getting better and better.” The optimistic 
opinion thus expressed may be beneficial but 
the influence of such a repetition is multiplied a 
thousand-fold when the person realizes he is 
not merely trying to draw on the hidden re- 


[155] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


sources of his own personality but is reaching 
out to and making active the eternal goodness 
of his Heavenly Father. 

Prayer brings the one who prays into personal 
contact with the spiritual power which makes 
for righteousness and underlies life. That there 
is such a power I have no doubt. Christians 
call it the eternal love of God which saves men 
from their sins. When we look in the human 


heart and see its inherent weaknesses, its base © 


passions, and ignoble purposes, and then realize 
how these lower elements have been brought 
under control of a higher purpose, we are forced 
to admit there must be some unseen presence in 
the world from which passion-tossed human na- 
ture draws strength. A realization of the priv- 
ilege every one has of drawing on this spiritual 
power to reénforce the best elements of char- 
acter is of inestimable value in every sincere 
effort to improve the moral and spiritual life. 
It strengthens moral fiber and through its ef- 
fect on the mind and nerves improves physical 
health. 

We have frequently pointed out the destruc- 
tive element of worry and spoken of physicians 


[156] 


ee 


PRAYER 


warning their patients against yielding to this 
weakness. In spite of the doctor’s advice men 
continue to worry about their business, others 
worry about their aches and pains, and in every 
case the yielding to this vicious habit aggra- 
vates fear, upsets bodily functions, and injures 
the nerves. They do not worry because they 
want to but because they cannot help them- 
selves. Dark shadows overcast their minds 
and fearsome thoughts preémpt the thought 
processes. These people have to learn how to 
cleanse the mind of shadows and organize new 
thought processes. One of the most effective 
means man has for attaining this wholesome 
and much desired end is to cultivate the spirit- 
ual life through prayer. When a mind is in 
close contact with the person of God, it gradu- 
ally realizes the pettishness and foolishness of 
worry and wins a new conception of life which 
brings peace and quietness. It takes time to 
attain this end but it is certainly worth the 
effort. 

We have also considered in several different 
places the amount of illness which is caused 
by the nerves and the difficulties the medical 


[157] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


profession has in treating these disorders. It is 
possible to quiet the nerves or stimulate them, | 
through a well organized and thoroughly de- 
veloped prayer life. This may also be con- 
sidered as a by-product of prayer. The number 
and value of these by-products should increase 
a man’s respect for prayer rather than destroy 
his belief init. The calmness of mind possessed 
by people of faith has often been noted by 
scholars and authors. This calmness of mind. 
indicates a healthy and vigorous nervous sys= 
tem. Many of these people lacked this nervous 
poise in their early days. It was developed and 
established by their cultivation of a devotional 
life through prayer. In this connection it must 
be emphasized that nervous disorders frequently 
afflict people who have plenty of leisure and 
live in economic comfort. This indicates nerv- 
ous troubles are not due to hard work, malnu- 
trition, poor sanitation or any such cause. If 
some of the leisure these sufferers have was 
used in building up a strong and vigorous spirit- 
ual nature, they would enjoy better health than 
they have ever had before. 

In a previous chapter we spoke about faith 


[158] 


PRAYER 


and indicated its therapeutic value. Faith can 
be developed through prayer. The constant 
personal contact with the divine spirit and the 
regular submitting of ideals, purposes, aspira- 
tions, failures and physical weaknesses to the 
source of all ideals, develops faith in God. Our 
Heavenly Father becomes more real and vital 
in life as faith grows. The mind and the 
nerves, the body and the soul, are harmonized 
by a realization of the divine presence. Char- 
acter develops and becomes strong, and the 
body is freed from physical weaknesses. 

Just how far this spiritual power of prayer 
can go in healing disease we do not as yet know. 
In these pages we have seen indications that it 
goes further than we realized. It can always 
be used and whatever the results may be, true 
faith will accept them as a Father’s answer. 
We only see through a glass darkly now, but 
when we know as we are known we shall ap- 
preciate that our Heavenly Father’s will was 
best. 

Only one aspect of prayer has been treated 
up to this point: its direct effect on the individ- 


ual who prays. It is not the purpose of this 
[159] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


book to deal with prayer as a spiritual means of 
attaining results in other lives or in distant 
places. The reader should realize that the 
question of religion and health is largely a per- 
sonal matter and depends on an individual’s 
faith. It is not out of place to indicate briefly 
how prayer may be used to affect another per- 
son’s health. Possibly the best way to illuss 
trate how this spiritual power may be invoked 
to aid a sufferer we are interested in is to draw 
an analogy from the radio. Where a man’s 
voice is his influence is felt. It may be a word 
of encouragement coming through miles of 
ether—if ether is measured by miles—but what- 
ever the words may be they affect us almost as 
much as if the speaker was in the same room. 
Even so prayer may bring an inspiration of en- 
couragement, stimulate a divine energy or de- 
velop a faith in the sufferer which is of positive 
value in overcoming illness and restoring health. 
The possibility of some such spiritual action 
may be more easily understood if it is stated in 
a different way. A mind may be tuned to an- 
other mind and a soul may act on another’s 
soul with which it is in harmony, even as a 


[160] 


PRAYER 


radio picks up messages from the ether. In 
these cases the connecting medium through 
which the mind or soul acts is spiritual sym- 
pathy and a common faith. The means of 
communicating this inspiration or power is 
prayer. We do not understand just how it is 
done, but it is easy to see that a man can keep 
in touch with actual conditions, retain his com- 
mon sense, and still believe the effectual prayer 
of a righteous man availeth much. We do not 
have to define how this healing is accomplished. 
It may be done in any one of the ways we have 
mentioned or in other ways not yet compre- 
hended, but the fact remains: prayer helps the 
sick and every spiritually minded person should 
pray for the recovery of his family and friends 
when they are afflicted with illness. He does 
not interfere with or exclude the doctor’s help 
but he adds another remedy, which is a spiritual 
one, to those already in use and increases the 
healing agencies that are at work. 


[161] 


Chapter V, 


Meditation 
EDITATION is a lost art. Spiritual 


geniuses in former generations practiced 
it with profit but to-day it is considered a waste 
of time. The time spent alone with God was 
considered by prophets, priests, and seers to 
be the most valuable portion of the day. They 
would sacrifice any pleasure for the joy and 
strength which came to them from bringing 
their souls into contact with the deity. They 
believed no duty should be permitted to inter- 
rupt their meditations. Belief in meditation is 
out of harmony with modern life. Every one 
wants to do something. People will manage 
soup kitchens, sewing classes, Boy Scouts, or 
Girl Scouts with enthusiasm, but they object 
to taking time for prayer, Bible study, or medi- 
tation. They consider these things a waste of 
time. This is the day of activities, good works, 
and the social gospel. There is no intention of 


[162] 


MEDITATION 


underestimating the importance of modern ac- 
tivities, but they should not absorb the time to 
the extent of crowding out all spiritual exer- 
cises. 

Former generations spent 4 large part of each 
day in doing chores. Water had to be pumped 
from the well; wood had to be cut; lamps had 
to be filled. Man found he could lighten his 
day’s tasks by taking time to generate a power 
to do this work. He developed electricity and 
eased his labors. He accomplished more by 
this indirect method than by any other means he 
could devise. The cultivation of spiritual 
power through Bible study, prayer, and medi- 
tation does the same thing for social life and 
physical health. The multiplicity of details 
clutters up life with numberless chores. Spirit- 
ual strength eases the situation and increases 
man’s accomplishments. ‘This lesson is easily 
ignored and human life is impoverished. 

Some elements of meditation must enter into 
both Bible study and prayer to make these spir- 
itual exercises effective. Cursory Bible reading 
and hurried prayers are harmful rather than 
helpful. They deaden the conscience by their 

[163] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


thoughtlessness and rob the soul of the confi 
dence they should give. 

Individuals read the Bible to learn about 
God’s will, character, purpose, and method of 
work as shown in His dealings with men in 
past centuries. The modern student does not 
expect to find scientific truth in the Bible any 
more than he expects to find birds at the bot- 
tom of the ocean. The Bible is a revelation of 
man’s search for God and God’s dealings with 
man. ‘True prayer is the effort of an individual 
to come in contact with God by projecting his 
personality through his thoughts or words to 
God. It is a spiritual communion of the soul 
which dwells in the human habitation with the 
infinite soul which is the author and creator of 
all things. It isnot merely a repetition of peti- 
tions for things desired but it is the soul’s as- 
piration for spiritual contact with the deity. It 
is a quest to find the meaning and purpose un- 
derlying life. It is a seeking for strength to 
overcome the limitations which are forced on 
man by the world he lives in. It is an effort 
to find an answer to the riddle of existence 
which troubles all thoughtful minds and seems 


[164] 


MEDITATION 


so often hopeless. Meditation is an absorbing 
of spirituality through quietness instead of 
seeking it by mental effort. It is an assimila- 
tion of the truths and the experiences discovered 
in the Bible and in prayer. By brooding over 
these truths new mental habits are created and 
new channels of thought processes are devel- 
oped. It is hard to cultivate new thought 
channels. They are the result of daily experi- 
ence and may reflect racial traits handed down 
from a man’s ancestors. These thought chan- 
nels direct an individual’s interests, his activi- 
ties and his way of dealing with problems. If 
they are left to chance, the needs of physical 
existence, or the winds of adversity, they are 
apt to be negative in their influence or even 
harmful. Many a person who has never given 
any attention to the cultivation of his thought 
processes 1s handicapped when he tries to use 
his mind constructively by the old, well-worn 
channels it follows. Meditation is the best 
means at man’s disposal for cultivating new 
thought channels and a new appreciation of 
the meaning of life. 

Meditation on spiritual things is a direct 


[165] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


means of reaching and stimulating the subcon- 
scious mind. The importance of this form of 
mental activity has already been emphasized, 
but it is so difficult to arouse and is so directly 
connected with physical health that every 
means of affecting it must be developed. There 
is no known way directly to reach it but it can 
be influenced by indirect suggestions. Any one 
can stimulate it by nourishing his mind and 
thought processes on spiritual interests and ex- 
alted ideals. The benefit which comes from a 
cultivation of the subliminal self is not imme- 
diate and it is hard to tabulate but it is none 
the less real. Meditation is one of the best 
ways open to human effort whereby the subcon- 
scious mind may be freed from dangerous com- 
plexes and set to work to improve health. The 
stimulation of this element of the mind is a 
by-product of meditation but it is of inestimable 
value in cultivating spiritual resources which 
would otherwise be lost. The Christian who 
ignores this practice is losing one of the most 
important elements of a religious faith. 
Meditation has a distinct value in applying 


religious faith to health. We have just shown 
[ 166 | 


MEDITATION 


how it is the means by which the thought 
processes are changed. Worry is the order of 
the day because of the complexities of civiliza- 
tion and the unsolved problems which confront 
every one. Worry is a mental poison. It af- 
fects the nerves and through the nerves creates 
physical and mental disorders of a serious na- 
ture. The soul which has cultivated a knowl- 
edge of God and a spiritual outlook on life 
through meditating on the eternal truths of the 
Bible is lifted out of the atmosphere of worry. 
This new mental attitude affects his nerves. 
The poison is removed and his physical health 
is benefited. There is such a direct relationship 
between meditation and physical health that it 
is surprising it is not more widely recognized. 
The body demands food, clothes, and a habi- 
tation. No one can escape these demands, for 
the body will not keep still. The need of food, 
warmth in winter, and a place of shelter from 
inclement weather requires every one to work. 
Work opens the door to all economic problems. 
These burdens are aggravated by the elements 
of an animal nature which exist in every human 
being. Cultured people dislike to admit this 
[167] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


fact. Buta denial isdangerous. The racial in- 
stinct for the propagation of the race is ele- 
mental. It comes into contact with social cus- 
tom and morality. The conflict between these 
antagonistic forces is bitter. 

Harmony can be restored by brooding on the 
love of God; the ultimate victory of the spirit 
over physical weaknesses ; the atoning mercies of 
a risen Saviour; the continuity of the life of the 
spirit after death. All these and many other 
spiritual truths only become real and vital in 
an individual’s life by the constant practice of 
meditation. The mind has to dream its way 
through quietness into an appreciation of ulti- 
mate reality. Unless this is done the phantas- 
magoria of life makes existence shallow and 
clutters up experience with a multitude of trivi- 
alities, while the underlying current of eternal 
truth is untouched. 

This spiritual viewpoint and atmosphere 
cannot be cultivated without concentrated and 
continuous mental effort. Disappointments in 
business, the betrayal of friendship, sickness, 
and death are daily experiences which impress 
themselves on the mind without an individual 


[168] 


MEDITATION 


seeking them. Accidents and catastrophes, 
business failures and crimes appear in the daily 
papers and unconsciously affect thought proc- 
esses. To overcome the antagonistic elements 
of human experience the individual has to de- 
velop by a determined act of will something 
to take their place or his mind will be diseased 
and weakened by the things it feeds on. Medi- 
tation opens a door of escape. The soul whose 
viewpoint reflects the faith of the Bible and the 
spiritual atmosphere of an intense prayer life 
is able to raise itself out of discouragements 
and breathe an atmosphere of faith, hope and 
victory. When the individual knows God by 
soul contacts developed in moments spent with 
Him in quietness, anxiety and worry are over- 
come. The nerves are rested and physical 
health improved. We must conclude that 
meditation is a necessary supplement to both 
Bible study and prayer which rounds out the 
discipline and practices necessary for the devel- 
opment of a spiritual life. 

Almost every cult, school, or sect which prac- 
tices faith or mental healing, has found quiet- 
ness, repose, and relaxation essential elements 


[169] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


in relieving sickness. Meditation is a spiritual 
form of quietness. It relaxes nervous and men- 
tal tensions but it goes beyond the limits of mere 
quietness. It is quietness with God. Relaxation 
in God’s presence introduces a new element of 
healing. It introduces the divine source of all 
life into the individual’s consciousness when the 
mind and nerves, body and soul are tuned for re- 
ceiving divine aid. A person does not have to be 
crazy to believe the divine source of life can 
heal disease and ease pain, comfort the mind 
and restore the nerves. This all comes from a 
cultivation of the spiritual nature. An appre- 
ciation of the benefits which can be secured by 
this means does not destroy an appreciation of 
the benefits which can be secured by a physi- 
cian’s advice and the remedies he orders. It is 
merely a cooperating agency which can be added 
to any treatment prescribed. Meditation con- 
tains many helpful elements both for spiritual 
and physical health and that is all this book is 
interested in. 


[170] 


Chapter VI 


Worship and Health 


P to this time we have been considering 
the elements of a personal religion which 
have to be cultivated in order to receive any 
specific help in dealing with questions of health. 
The majority of people cannot develop this 
spiritual life by their own unaided efforts. 
Their enthusiasm wanes before they receive 
any appreciable results and they lose interest in 
the experiment and drop the whole subject. 
Because of this trait of mind public worship has 
a permanent value for all who want to improve 
their physical condition by means of spiritual 
power. 

Church services are arranged for the purpose 
of inspiring worship, cultivating inspiration, 
giving instruction, and developing Christian 
fellowship. The object of worship is to bring 
human nature into contact with the deity, 
smooth out the rough spots of life, cheer the 

[171] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


discouraged, and remind men that humanity 
is not left alone in its efforts to overcome evil 
and do what is right. Churches realize man 
needs God, as those who forget Him are sure 
to be crushed by the burdens of daily existence 
and the drudgery of life; therefore, they pre- 
pare their services with a view to bringing the 
worshipers into contact with God. 

Through public worship the church endeavors 
to inspire the human mind with great ideals. 
People are too apt to become absorbed with 
petty cares and constant failures. To counter- 
act this tendency the attainments of great souls 
in past ages are held up as ideals. The life and 
work of Christ are impressed upon the hearers’ 
minds for the purpose of helping them over- 
come their own temptations and attain a whole- 
some spiritual life. The sin-stained are re- 
minded of Christ’s atoning mercies. The 
tempted are pointed the way of escape and the 
discouraged are reminded of God’s eternal love. 
Every one needs the tonic of spiritual inspira- 
tion and this is offered in the fellowship of 
worship. The church through the sermon tries 
to instruct the congregation in the way man 


[172] 


WORSHIP AND HEALTH 


may attain the ideals which have been sug- 
gested by the devotional elements of worship. 
Human nature is gregarious. A man cannot 
live alone. He needs the friendship of other 
men. The contact of like minds joined to- 
gether in worship creates a mass psychology 
which reflects itself in the minds of everyone 
who takes part in the service. 

All these elements enter into the Sunday 
morning service of the so-called orthodox 
churches. A mere lecture on a moral theme, in- 
tellectual subject, or social duty cannot take 
its place. The lecture lacks the spiritual ele- 
ment of worship, the inspiration of the common 
mind, and the fellowship of souls united in 
seeking divine help. The lecture may be able 
to impart instruction, but it loses the elements 
of worship which have an important bearing 
on creating a faith which benefits both physical 
health and moral character. 

It is now necessary to analyze a Sunday 
morning service in an effort to show how its 
different parts should be used to create the sort 
of a spiritual life we have been describing. 
There is one thing which must be emphasized 


[173] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


in this connection. It is essential for every in- 
dividual who desires a deeper spiritual life to 
take an active part in the service. The only 
way a person can impress the spirituality of 
public worship on his intellect and heart, con- 
duct and health, conscious and subconscious 
mind, is by an active participation in it. 

Take, for example, the congregational sing- 
ing of hymns. Group singing has great in- 
spirational value as was shown in the training 
of the Army in 1917. A mental and spiritual 
stimulant is developed by joining with others 
in song which affects every one who takes part 
in this exercise. It is one of the ways in which 
group psychology can be used to benefit those 
who participate. This participation in the 
singing of hymns may be used most effectively 
by people who find it difficult to develop a 
spiritual atmosphere in their own minds. Some 
people say they do not believe in every word 
or line of a hymn. The inspirational value of 
congregational singing does not depend on a 
literal acceptance of every word. ‘The theo- 
logical opinion of the writer is not necessarily 
involved. Some of the best hymns have been 


[174] 


WORSHIP AND HEALTH 


written by Unitarians, Roman Catholics, 
Quakers, and members of the less orthodox 
Protestant denominations. As long as the spirit 
is devotional, and the thoughts of those who 
are singing are pointed towards God, and 
Christ is exalted, these hymns have a definite 
value. While the words may be acceptable, 
sometimes the tunes are criticized. The only 
tune that should be prohibited is one that is 
unsingable. There are hymns in every hymn- 
book set to music no congregation can possibly 
sing. It is a crime for any minister to allow 
such music in his church. He is destroying the 
spirit of worship and bringing a discord into 
the service. Having chosen a hymn, the senti- 
ment of which is wholesome, set to music easy 
to sing, then it is the congregation’s duty to 
join heartily in this devotional exercise. The 
man who refuses to take a hymn book, or hav- 
ing taken one stands with his mouth closed and 
his eyes wandering over the congregation will 
probably get nothing from the service. He is 
closing the door of his soul to the spiritual in- 
fluences which would help him if he would only 
allow them to. If you want to receive spiritual 


[175] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


or physical benefit from a service you must take 
part in it. Taking part in the service means 
joining with the congregation in the singing of 
the hymns, even if your best efforts are only 
discords. 

Most churches read responsively from the 
Psalms every Sunday morning. The Psalms 
are spiritual poems containing the aspirations 
and experiences of souls in touch with God and 
have proven themselves profitable to many gen- 
erations. Take part in the reading from the 
Psalter. Let the great thoughts of the past 
sink into your mind and heart. The Psalms 
have a message for all men and a message which 
will help you if you only will open your mind 
to their influence. 

Every Sunday there is a scripture lesson read 
from the pulpit. The pastor has chosen the 
lesson because of some thought it contains 
which supplements or emphasizes what he has 
to say in the sermon. This lesson is usually 
taken from the Gospels, the Epistles, or the 
Prophets. These portions of scripture contain 
the bulk of its spiritual message and their read- 
ing increases the congregation’s knowledge of 


[176] 


WORSHIP AND HEALTH 


the truth and encourages them to read the Bible 
at home. 

We next have to consider the prayers. There 
is only one possible way for an individual to 
get anything from public prayer and that is to 
join with the preacher in the spirit of prayer. 
Many people take this time to have a quiet 
doze with the head resting comfortably on the 
pew in front of them. Others allow themselves 
to become occupied with the business cares of 
the past week, while boys play over again yes- 
terday’s ball game, and girls are thinking of 
the other girl’s hat. These wandering thoughts 
blight the spirit of prayer and shut out its bene- 
fits. Public prayer in many churches never 
reaches beyond the ceiling. It is crushed by 
the weight of the frivolous, anxious, or incon- 
sequential thoughts of the congregation. When 
the whole congregation enters into the spirit 
of prayer a new atmosphere is born and every 
attendant at the service feels the help which 
comes only to those who realize they are in the 
Divine presence. 

Most churches have a choir which has a 
larger or smaller part in the service. The choir 


[177] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


can be used to create a spirit of worship or it 
can bring discord into the devotional atmos- 
phere. The church is no place to exhibit vocal 
gymnastics or artistic singing. The music 
should be devotional. There is so much fine re- 
ligious music which stirs the soul, stimulates 
the mind and develops a spiritual atmosphere 
it is a crime to have concert music dragged in 
by its ears to jar on the spirits of the worship- 
ers and to irritate the soul of the preacher who 
is striving not for artistic perfection but for 
spiritual helpfulness. If the choir cannot be 
used to create a devotional atmosphere it should 
be dispensed with as it is more harmful than 
helpful. 

It is now necessary to say a few more words 
about the sermon. It may not always be pos- 
sible to agree with all the preacher says, but 
every sermon has something helpful if we only 
look for it. It is a mistake to continue attends 
ing a church when the individual finds he is 
hopelessly at odds with the pastor and his pres- 
entation of spiritual truth. Denominational 
loyalty is not the main goal in church attend- 
ance. The individual has a right to look for 


[178] 


: 


WORSHIP AND HEALTH 


spiritual help, and if he cannot find it in his 
own church he should find a church which ap- 
peals to him. Having settled on the church 
whose pastor and services are helpful then it is 
the duty of each individual to attend this church 
regularly, to take part in the service, and to ex- 
pect help. 

The worship of God should bring about 
certain results for all who attend church regu- 
larly. God should become real in their lives. 
They should be inspired to practice private de- 
votions at home including Bible study, prayer 
and meditation. Faith as already defined in 
a previous chapter should become a vital energy 
affecting all life’s relationships, while uncer- 
tainties and doubts shrivel up. It is doubtful 
- if any one can keep alive a normal, sane, and ac- 
tive spiritual life without the inspirational and 
controlling elements of public worship. Indi- 
vidual vagaries and delusions are apt to warp 
the spiritual experience of those who persist 
in worshiping alone. Therefore, it is not too 
much to say that public worship is an essential 
part of the religious life which heals disease. 
The singing of hymns, reading the Psalms and 

[179 ] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


scriptures, the preaching of the Gospel, and 
public prayer, all at first seem far removed 
from those intensely personal elements of the 
mystical religion we have described, but they 
are really important codrdinating and codper- 
ating agencies. 

Many people find the sacrament of the 
Lord’s Supper a distinct help in cultivating a 
spiritual mind and atmosphere. The individual 
comes closer to his Savior in this sacred service 
than at any other time. It has a distinct and 
real value in creating the mystical and spiritual 
side of Christianity which has been discussed 
in the preceding chapters. This mystical and 
spiritual element is essential to a religion which 
desires to heal the body as well as strengthen 
the soul. The neglect of this sacrament results 
in a lowered spiritual vitality and is therefore 
dangerous. Participation in it should be en- 
couraged as an important factor in keeping alive 
the individual’s interest in all personal prac- 
tices essential to a healthy and sound spiritual 
growth. 

Only a vigorous spiritual life is able to over- 
come physical pain and troublesome nerves. 


[180] 


WORSHIP AND HEALTH 


All the things discussed in this book point out 
the far-reaching effects of a faith which is in 
constant contact with God. This faith depends 
on a person’s desire to possess it and then on 
following out the discipline of a Christian life. 
It is not easily attained but the blessings it 
gives more than pay for the time and strength 
it demands. 

The purpose of this chapter has been to em- 
phasize that Christianity is something more 
than an intense individualistic spiritual life. 
It is organized fellowship and Christ continu- 
ally emphasizes this fact in His teachings about 
the Kingdom of God. Without the inspira- 
tion, the guidance and the continuity of the 
church, faith would lead into vagaries and ec- 
stasies totally divorced from Christ and unable 
to cope with the weak and vicious elements of 
human nature. Every Christian should submit 
his conscience, devotional practices, moral 
ideals, spiritual enthusiasms, and, in fact, the 
underlying substance of his religious faith to 
the guidance of some church. This submitting 
of the self to a spiritual authority does not 
destroy freedom of thought but it guides and 


[181] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


directs faith into safe channels. There are so 
many pitfalls and dangers in the pathway of 
a religious life that every one needs guidance. 
Church fellowship and discipline are neces- 
ary elements in all vigorous and sane mys- 
ticism. A formal relationship with the church 
does not guarantee to any one that he will pos- 
sess the spiritual energy we have been speaking 
about. It is a contributing agency which helps 
an earnest soul to find God, develops fellowship 
with Christ, and guarantees the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit. It is only this unique relationship 
with God the Father, God the Son, and God 
the Holy Spirit, which gives the divine energy 
necessary to overcome sin and heal sickness. 


[182] 


Chapter VII 


Conclusions 


HE object we set out to accomplish has 
now been attained. 

We first showed the intimate relations which 
unquestionably exist between religion and 
health. On this foundation we sketched the 
only kind of religion which is capable of affects 
ing the ailments of the body. It is a spiritual 
and mystical relationship with God, depend- 
ing on Bible study, prayer, meditation, and 
worship. This mystical religion does not de- 
stroy a man’s faith in medicine or the medical 
profession. It is a codperating and supplemen- 
tary agency which aids every effort to ease or 
heal sickness. When a person realizes religion 
can do this, he recognizes the importance of 
cultivating his faith in God. Religion is not an 
outgrown superstition but it is—as it has al- 
ways been—an essential factor in a well- 
rounded, high-minded, and noble life. 

[183] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


Belief in the healing power of faith does 
not necessitate joining some particular society 
or cult. It may be accepted by the members of 
any Church. It does not require a peculiar dis- 
cipline or depend on a particular doctrine. The 
only essential thing is a vigorous spiritual life 
which applies faith to physical health as well 
as to moral and religious questions. 

Christians believe Jesus Christ personified 
in His life, work among men and death on the 
Cross, a unique relationship with God, and that 
He is, in fact as well as in theory, the Saviour of 
mankind. He has taught His disciples in every 
age to appreciate and practice those things 
which are essential to a sane spiritual life. 
While on earth He healed the sick, forgave 
sinners, enlightened the ignorant, rebuked the 
gainsaying, and showed in many ways the 
energy and strength spirituality can give to 
those who cultivate it. The church stands for 
the things Christ stood for. It does not dis- 
card His authority or substitute a new defini- 
tion of religion for the truth He uttered. 
Christians believe Christ gives the only answer 
to be found anywhere to all human needs. He 


[184] 


CONCLUSIONS 


gives His disciples power to overcome sin, and 
strength to assist in healing the sick. His mes- 
sage stands the test of criticism and meets the 
requirements of common sense. He is, as He 
has been for two thousand years, ‘“The way, the 
truth and the life.” Christ’s place in the re- 
ligious life of the world is both unique and per- 
manent. His Gospel and influence will not be 
outgrown or become obsolete until mortality 
has put on immortality. The solution of all 
problems is found in the spiritual life Christ 
explained in His words and emphasized by His 
death on the Cross. 


[185] 





i 


SUPPLEMENT 





fo a 
eke 





The Minister and Faith Healing 


HIS chapter has no direct connection with 

the main purpose of the book and is 

meant for ministers only. Certain results 

which affect a minister’s thought-life, preaching 

and work automatically come from a belief in 

faith healing, and these things are worthy of 
consideration. 

Any minister who preaches to a congregation 
every Sunday and does not believe in the in- 
fluence of religion on health is handicapped 
by a bad psychological background. The Gos- 
pels are the foundation of his message. He uses 
these sources with more or less freedom but his 
convictions on the Gospel narrative color all he 
says. A preacher who literally believes Christ 
died for sinners, fearlessly proclaims Christ’s 
authority on moral questions, and considers 
Him the only satisfactory guide to spiritual 
truth, stumbles in his thoughts when he treats 
Christ’s healing ministry as an allegory. 


[189] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


This becomes evident by analyzing the Gos- 
pels. A careful study of these narratives shows 
that almost half their space is given to accounts 
of Christ’s work of healing and they offer no jus- 
tification for the allegorical method of interpre- 
tation, ‘The Gospels record the events of a 
day’s work in the Master’s life and indicate 
what kind of a man He was, what He did, and 
what He taught. 

It is logically impossible to accept one half of | 
a narrative as literal and the other half as alle- 
gorical, when the two are woven into an inter- 
locking unit. This logically impossible thing 
is just what is being done in many pulpits with- 
out the minister or congregation being conscious 
of the inconsistency of their mental attitude. 
Many preachers hold and preach the doctrinal 
statements of the Gospel in what they believe 
to be their literal meaning, but when they dis- 
cuss Christ’s work of healing they immediately 
slip into allegory. The opening of the eyes 
of the blind is considered as an opening of 
spiritual eyes to the sinfulness of sin; healing 
the leper is an illustration of God’s power to 
cleanse the morally unclean; making a lame 


[190] 


THE MINISTER AND FAITH HEALING 


man walk shows how God enables the spiritu- 
ally weak to become strong. This method is 
used to ignore and nullify the whole ministry 
of healing as practiced by Christ. Without 
intending to destroy people’s faith in the Gos- 
pels the ministers do it by using a method of 
interpretation which is not justified by the text, 
outrages the logic of the situation, and points 
to either timidity, ignorance or lack of con- 
sistency in the speaker’s intellectual equipment. 

The best results of preaching are not attained 
by the words used or the thoughts expressed. 
They require the right sort of a psychological 
background. This background is felt by the 
hearers even when they cannot express their 
feelings. The words of the preacher either 
ring true and compel people to listen, or they 
have a thin and hollow sound which deadens 
their conscience. The desired psychological at- 
mosphere can only be developed by a consistent 
and logical use of the Gospels. This requires 
the minister to investigate thoroughly and think 
through for himself the healing work of Christ 
as well as the theological and ethical meaning 
of His message. 


[191] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


The theory now advocated by some students, 
that Christ’s healing work was to be limited to 
the apostolic age, is neither justified by the 
facts nor solves the problem. The theory is 
untenable. to all who accept the authority of 
John’s Gospel, for there we find these words, 
“He that believeth on me, the works that I do 
shall he do also; and greater works than these 
shall he do.” (John 14:12.) <A careful study 
of the times of Christ gives no justification for 
believing there was something peculiar and dif- 
ferent about them. Naturally the people were 
ignorant of many things which have been dis- 
covered in the course of time. They had 
theories about illness which seem strange and 
crude to us, simply because we live in another 
age. The belief that an insane person was pos- 
sessed with a devil was held not only by the 
Jews but by many primitive races. 

The conviction that Christ and the apostles 
healed the sick by some spiritual energy they 
were cognizant of does not help us very much, 
as individuals in every age from the time of 
Christ to this have professed to heal the sick 
through faith. A careful study of the Gospels 

[192] 


THE MINISTER AND FAITH HEALING 


shows that Christ healed the sick. He used 
faith in a number of cases and it is so stated 
in the narrative. In other incidents the need 
of faith is either implied or understood. It is 
possible he only healed the sick through their 
faith. There are grounds for this belief and I 
personally think it is the right one. His unique 
spiritual personality had a direct and dynamic 
influence in stimulating faith. He accom- 
plished more by this method than any ordinary 
man can hope to do. An intelligent, thoroughly 
trained, and spiritual man can stimulate peo- 
ple’s faith in the same way Christ did, but not 
to the same degree. 

While this opens a special field of activity 
to some ministers, it should directly affect 
every sermon. The whole Gospel story should 
be treated logically and the healing power of 
faith should go hand in hand with the atoning 
message of the Cross. This conviction about 
the healing work of Christ does not destroy con- 
fidence in scientific medicine or the work of a 
physician. It must be remembered that re- 
ligion can only affect the body by acting on 
the mind, as the mind is the channel through 


[193] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


which faith reaches the nerves and through 
the nerves affects the physical nature. The 
method is clear and its results are important, 
even if we admit that we do not know how far 
or in what way they affect organic troubles. 

Every minister should carefully study this 
subject until he has been able to think himself 
through to some clear and consistent conclusion 
which appeals to his faith, common sense and 
understanding of the facts. The theory he 
finally accepts should deal logically with the 
Gospel narrative. This foundation will in- 
crease the effectiveness of his preaching even if 
he never mentions faith healing. 

There is another result of this study of faith 
healing which can improve the effectiveness of 
sermons. A recognition of and frequent refer- 
ence to the important influence Christianity 
can have in preventing sickness, alleviating 
pain, and bringing cheer, light and help to 
suffering minds, makes the sermon practical, 
thought-compelling, and stimulating to many 
people who find theology dull and repulsive. 
We might as well admit to ourselves what all 
the world knows, people to-day have deaf ears 


[194] 


THE MINISTER AND FAITH HEALING 


and dull consciences as far as theological for- 
mulas and definitions are concerned. It is use- 
less to keep telling them to go to church when 
they receive no help from going. The ones who 
need to go are not there to hear the urging of 
their pastor and after a time the exhortations 
to attend church drive away those who were 
once attendants. 

It might prove worth while for a minister 
who has become discouraged by the falling 
off of his congregation to approach his prob- 
lem from a new angle. Stop all criticism of 
your people and cease urging them to attend the 
services. Instead of limiting the theme of the 
sermon to salvation from sin, begin to teach 
the people, Sunday after Sunday, something 
about the power of faith to overcome nervous 
strain, ease pain and increase physical strength. 
Give such a thought-compelling and stimulat- 
ing exposition of these truths, which can be 
clearly found in the scriptures, if they are 
sought there, that every one who hears the 
sermon will be strengthened and helped. If 
this method is continued for a reasonable time, 
without neglecting an emphasis on Christ’s sav- 


[195] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


ing work for sinners, people will start coming 
to church services, not because they feel they 
ought to go but because they cannot afford to 
miss them. When religious services not only 
heal sin-sick souls but also quiet overwrought 
nerves and increase physical strength as well, 
they broaden their range of interest. An hon- 
est desire for church services on the part of the 
public will fill the churches much quicker than 
any advertising campaign can possibly do it. 
The sort of preaching I recommend 1s distinctly 
evangelical as it includes the whole Gospel 
story and all of Christ’s work. It awakens in- 
terest in a wider circle of people because it 
meets an actual need in their lives. It does not 
ignore the soul because of its interest in the 
body, nor neglect the body because of its in- 
terest in the soul, but it unifies the body and 
soul just as they are unified in life, and points 
the way to spiritual, moral, and physical health. 
It gives a new point of contact between the 
minister and his people, their common interest 
in a healthy and happy life on this earth as 
well as an eternal life with God in His King- 
dom. 


[196] 


THE MINISTER AND FAITH HEALING 


Ministers believe their people are wrong and 
they are right. It is the fault of the people that 
the churches are empty. It is their duty to come 
to church and receive quietly and thankfully 
whatever the pulpit offers them. This is a 
mistake in judgment. Ministers should recog- 
nize their obligation to feed their people the 
things they need and not the things the minister 
is interested in. The average congregation is 
not made up of rebellious or bad people. They 
are decent, law-abiding citizens without any 
interest in theological subtleties. They are in- 
terested in the everyday question of living. 
Sometimes their outstanding need is the story 
of a Saviour who saves from sin. ‘This need is 
fairly well met in the churches. But at other 
times ill health, unruly nerves, and worry pre- 
empt their minds to the exclusion of all other 
questions. Cannot the minister do as his Mas- 
ter did, meet both needs and do it in such a 
way as to bring God nearer to human life? 

Every minister needs to be thoroughly pre- 
pared for his work but it must be admitted that 
a few years in a theological seminary often dulls 
a man’s enthusiasm. In receiving the training 


[197] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


necessary to preach intelligently and consist- 
ently, he loses the warmth and vitality of a liv- 
ing faith. His sermons are heavy with the dust 
of ages. It is not enough to proclaim fearlessly 
and eloquently a theological formula. The 
pews are occupied, unless they hold nothing 
but musty cushions, by people—well dressed 
and moral people. These people yearn for life. 
They are just ordinary home folks; some are 
saints, others are sinners, but on the average 
they are well intending, busy, preoccupied in- 
dividuals. They come to church from a variety 
of reasons. A few come from choice, others 
from habit, and others for companionship or 
because of spiritual aspirations, heart hunger, 
or fear of sin. The minister comes to the pul- 
pit after spending a busy week in parish work. 
He has had little time to prepare a vital mes- 
sage. He talks against time, or about the de- 
cadence of youth, or theology. This goes on 
Sunday after Sunday. Finally, one by one, 
people lose the habit of going to church; others 
are literally driven away by the dullness of the 
sermons they hear. The minister condemns the 
people for indifference. The man who has 


[198] 


THE MINISTER AND FAITH HEALING 


made them indifferent stands in the pulpit and 
by his own words condemns himself. 

What has all this to do with the relation of 
health to religion? There is a direct connection 
between a belief in this relation and the sermon, 
as it makes the sermon live. It gives the 
preacher a new handle on spiritual truth which 
ought to revolutionize his mind and put life 
into his sermons. People want life and the 
pulpits in many churches feed them dust and 
ashes. 

The healing ministry of Christ when it is 
properly understood revolutionizes the pastor’s 
sick calls. When a pastor believes faith can 
assist in healing the body he has a new object 
in the sick room. He encourages, comforts, 
and strengthens the sufferer for the purpose of 
healing his body as well as helping his soul. 
He should be careful not to practice faith heal- 
ing in a crude way. This is a danger which 
must be guarded against. It is only a man of 
great faith, peculiar personality, and thorough 
preparation who has any business to take up 
this subject. While the danger is evident there 
- 1s no reason why every minister could not use 


[199] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


simple methods of cultivating a sick person’s 
faith so as to assist the physician in his work. 
Probably the best results can be obtained by the 
cooperation of the minister and doctor. 

Enough has now been said to show how a 
common sense use of faith healing, as it was 
practiced by Christ, can have an important 
place in the life and thoughts of the hard-work- 
ing and often discouraged pastor. He does not 
have to throw away common sense or give up 
his theology; he has only to investigate a new 
field of usefulness and apply the things he 
learns in his own way to the needs of his people 
and his parish. 


[200] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


ae 
t 


r 
Nhe! 
f Ma 
; be 





Bibliography 


This list of books is not exhaustive or com- 
prehensive but merely indicates some of those 
I have found helpful. It is given as a guide to 
any one who desires to study the relations of 
religion and health in more detail. 


I. CHRISTIANITY AND HEALTH. 
“Body and Soul” by Percy Dearmer (Dutton) 
The best presentation of this subject I have 
found and recommended by the Society of the 
Nazarene. 

“Healing in the Churches” by Francis M. Weth- 
erill (Revell) 

A good book and worth reading. 

“Religious Aspects of Scientific Healing” by 
Donald Kent Johnston (Badger) 

A short but helpful study. 

“The Christian Religion as a Healing Power” 
by Elwood Worcester and Samuel McComb 
(Moffat, Yard & Co.) 

An exposition of the Emmanuel Movement. 

“The Power to Heal” by Henry B. Wilson 
(Nazarene Press) | 


A handbook for the practice of healing by 
[203] 


it. 


III. 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


the founder of The Society of the Nazarene. 

“The Revival of the Gift of Healing” by the 
Rev. Henry B. Wilson (Morehouse Publish- 
ing Co.) 


PSYCHOTHERAPY. 

“The Omnipotent Self” by Paul Bonsfield 
(Dutton ) 

“The Elements of Practical Psycho-analysis” by 
Paul Bonsfield (Dutton) 

“Outwitting Our Nerves’ by Josephine, A. 
Jackson, M.D. and Helen M. Salisbury (Cen- 
tury Co.) 

Interesting and stimulating. 

“How the Mind Cures” by George F. Butler, 
M.D. (Knopf) 

“The Psychic Treatment of Nervous Disorders” 
by Dubois (Funk and Wagnalls) 

An old book but still valuable. 

“The Hope of the Variant” by John George 

Gehring (Scribner’s) 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND OTHER 
HEALING CULTS. 
“The Truth About Christian Science” by James 
H. Snowden (Westminster Press) 
A scholar’s opinion of Christian Science. 
“The Practice of Auto-Suggestion” by C. Harry 
Brooks (Dodd Mead & Co.) 
A study of Coué’s work. 


[204] 


IV. 


VI. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


PSYCHOLOGICAL BACKGROUNDS. 
“The New Psychology” by Tansley (Dodd, 


Mead & Co.) 

“Our Unconscious Mind” by Frederick Pierce 
(Dutton) 

“The Unconscious’ by Morton Prince (Mac- 
millan) 


“Multiple Personality” by Sidis and Goodhard 
(Appleton) 


MENTAL DISORDERS AND THEIR 
TREATMENT. 
“The Psychology of Insanity” by Bernard Hart 
(Cambridge Press) 
A little book which contains more than you 
expect. 


PRAYER, FAITH AND WORSHIP. 

“The Meaning of Prayer’ by Harry Emerson 
Fosdick (Association Press) 

“The Meaning of Faith’ by Harry Emerson 
Fosdick (Association Press) 

“Reality in Worship” by Willard L. Sperry 
(Macmillan) 

“The Supremacy of the Spiritual’ by Herbert 
Alden Youtz (Macmillan) 

These books do not mention Faith Healing 
but indicate the importance of the Spiritual 
life or show how to develop it. They carry 
out the thought of Book II. 


[205] 


FAITH, HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE 


VII. GENERAL. 
“What Men Live By” by Richard C. Cabot 
A helpful book by a prominent physician. 

“Psychology and the Christian Life’ by Rev. 
T. W. Pynn (Doran) 

“A Layman’s Handbook of Medicine’ by Rich- 
ard C. Cabot (Houghton Mifflin Co.) 

“Social Work” by Richard C. Cabot (Houghton 
Mifflin Co.) 


[206] 


INDEX 


B 


Bercson, Henri, pg. 33 
BisLe Stupy, pg. 77, 78; 
pg. 140-150 
A method of, pg. 98 to 
13S 
Bryant, Dr. Joseph D., 
pg. 20 


C 


GABOT. Dro hichard, |G. 
pg. 3l 
CHRISTIANITY, 
A definition of, pg. 122 
to 126 
Curist’s Heatinc Min- 
IsTRY, pg. 65; pg. 77 
His work, pg. 184 
Its place in gospels, pg. 
190 to 192 
CoMMON SENSE, 
Its tmportance, pg. 35, 
36 
Rules of, pg. 91 to 94 
Covk, Emile, pg. 27. 


D 


DEATH, pg. 77 to 79 
DISEASES, 
Intemperance, pg. 233 
Pe oOso st 
Tuberculosis, pg. 24, 
25 
Typhoid, pg. 24, 25 
Typhus, pg. 24, 25 
Venereal Disease, pg. 
22, 23; pg. 42 to 44 
Yellow fever, pg. 30 
Dusors, Paul, pg. 32 


E 
Eppy, Mrs. Mary Baker 
Gi penis 
Hi 


BAITH pee 2/28 spe 
65; pg. 128-129 
A help, pg. 82 
FaitH HEALING, 
Age of, pg. 18, 19 


INDEX 


Farrnh Heauinc, Cont. 

And organic troubles, 
pg. 56 to 63 

Cause of belief in, pg. 
21 to 23 

Common «denominator, 
pg. 26, 27 

Effect on nerves, pg- 
25.126 

Illustration of, pg. 69 
to 74 

Important factors tn, 
pg. 30 to 32 

Its Limitations, pg. 29, 
30; pg. 32, 333 pE- 
63, 64; pg. 74 to 76; 
pg. 86 to 89 

Its sphere, 
pg. 35 

Makes religion vital, 
pg. 82 to 84; pg. 85, 
86; pg. 194 to 200 


H 


Heauinc Cutts, pg. 17, 
18 


I 
Ir, HEALTH, 


Danger to society, pg. 
52 


K 
Kinos.tey, Charles, pg. 
25 
L 


Living CoNDITIONS AND 
Heat, pg. 24, 25 


M 


MEDICINE, 
Its limitations, pg. 20 
Its origin, pg. 19 
Its sphere, pg. 33, 34 
Its use of faith, pg. 28, 
29 
Mepitation, pg. 162 to 
165 
And health, pg. 166 to 
170 


N 


NERVES, 
Affected by anger, pg- 
48 to 50 
Affected by fear, pg. 50 
Affected by modern 
life, pg. 253 pg. 95; 
96 


Affected by worry, pg: 
46 to 48 


[208] 


oS Sees. 


INDEX 


Nerves, Cont. 

Helped by Bible Study, 
pg. 146, 147 

Helped by faith, pg. 
a ihe 

Helped by prayer, pg. 
156 to 158 

Injured by excessive 
pleasure, pg. 44, 45 

Injured by sin, pg. 38 


P 


Prayer, pg. 151 to 154 
Affects health, pg. 155 
to 157 
For others, pg. 159 to 
161 


Q 


OuimBy, Dr. P. \P:, peg: 
18 


R 


Reep, Dr. Walter, pg. 30 
RELIGION AND HEALTH, 
Connection between, 


pg. 22; pg. 23, 24; 


pe.263 ‘pe. 54, 55; 
pg. 183, 184 
Rocers, Dr. Oscar H., 


Deo pee ok 


Ss 
SIN, 
Cause of wl health, pg. 
41 to 45 
Definition of, pg. 37, 
38 


Reality of, pg. 38 to 40 
Susconscious Minp, 
Ajeded oy Beble 
Study, pg. 98 
Affected by meditation, 
pg. 165, 166 
Affected by prayer, pg. 
154, 155 
And faith, pg. 133 to 
135 
SUFFERING, pg. 79, &0 


Ww 


Witson, Rev. Henry B.., 
ped. 26 
WorsHIP, 
Importance of, pg. 171 
to 182 


[209] 








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